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NARRATIVE 


OF THE 

SURRENDER OF BUONAPARTE 

AND OF HIS 

RESIDENCE ON BOARD H.M.S. BELLEROPHON 

WITH A DETAIL OF 

THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS THAT OCCURRED 
IN THAT SHIP, 

BETWEEN THE 24th OF MAY AND THE 8th OF AUGUST, 1815. 


CAPTAIN F. L. MAITLAND, C. B. 



LONDON: 

a 

PUBLISHED BY HENRY COLBURN, 

NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 













LONDON: 

PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET STREET. 


o 


„x V 

ns' 




Some explanation seems called for, when, 
after a lapse of eleven years, I present to 
the Public my Narrative of the reception 
and residence of Napoleon Buonaparte 
on board H. M. S. Bellerophon; as it will 
naturally be asked, why it has been so 
many years in seeing the light, and from 
what cause it makes its appearance at this 
particular period. 



IV 


PREFACE. 


Immediately after the extraordinary and 
interesting - events took place which are 
here recorded, I was, by the earnest so¬ 
licitations of my friends, induced to throw 
together the notes and memoranda in my 
possession, of the proceedings in which 
I bore so prominent a part. I was fur¬ 
ther led to undertake this task, so foreign 
to my usual occupations, in consequence 
of the many misrepresentations that ap¬ 
peared at that time, respecting the con¬ 
duct of Buonaparte while on board the 
ship I commanded, as well as my treat¬ 
ment of him. 

The following Narrative was then writ¬ 
ten solely for the private perusal of my 
friends, and not with a view to publi¬ 
cation many reasons combining, at that 


PREFACE. 


V 


time, in my opinion, to render such a 
measure inexpedient. 

I made it my study to state events ex¬ 
actly as they occurred, and, in doing so, 
to avoid, as much as possible, all preju¬ 
dice, either against or in favour of the 
extraordinary man whom it was my for¬ 
tune to secure and bring to this country. 
It may appear surprising, that a possi¬ 
bility could exist of a British officer, be¬ 
ing prejudiced in favour of one who had 
caused so many calamities to his coun¬ 
try ; but to such an extent did he pos¬ 
sess the power of pleasing, that there are 
few people who could have sat at the 
same table with him for nearly a month, 
as I did, without feeling a sensation of 
pity, allied perhaps to regret, that a man 


VI 


PREFACE, 


possessed of so many fascinating quali¬ 
ties, and who had held so high a station 
in life, should be reduced ,to the situation 
in which I saw him. 

Although many of the causes for with¬ 
holding my Narrative from the public eye, 
have long been removed, I had no inten¬ 
tion of bringing it forward, until by acci¬ 
dent it fell into the hands of a most cele¬ 
brated literary character. He did me the 
honour, on returning it, to express an opinion 
which I was not at all prepared to expect, 
and so strongly to recommend its being pub¬ 
lished, that however averse to appearing 
as an author, I have been induced under 
the sanction of such high authority, to pre¬ 
sent it to the public. 


The habits of my life, since I entered 


PREFACE. 


Vll 


my profession at a very early age, have 
been very different from those of a literary 
man ; and therefore the following Narrative 
has no pretensions to any other merit, than 
what arises from the interest of the subject, 
and is nearly verbatim as originally written 
in the Autumn of 1815. 

FRED\ L. MAITLAND. 


Lindores, 1826. 




















. . 




* 









. 

























CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

Captain Maitland sets sail in the Bellerophon, with 
sealed Instructions . .1 

He arrives off l’lsle Dieu. Proceeds off Rochefort . 2 

Reconnoitres the French Ships of war under ITsle 
d'Aix . . . .3 

Is joined by the Cephalus . . . 4 

Captain Maitland hears of the Victory of Waterloo. 

On June 30, receives a communication, sent from 
Bourdeaux within a quill, respecting the probable 
Flight of Buonaparte by Sea . . 5 

Blockades Rochefort, Bourdeaux, and la Teste d’Ar- 
casson . . . .8 

Destroys his Prizes . . .9 

A Man and Boy in a flat Punt saved . * 10 

Captain Maitland watches the Frigates at ITsle d’Aix 
closely . • ... 12 

Receives Sir Henry Hotham’s Instructions . 13, 15, 16 


1 



X 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

The Mouche Schooner, with Savary and Las Cases 
with a Flag of Truce, approaches the Bellerophon 22 
Secret Orders from Sir Henry Hotham . 22 , 25 

Letter of Count Bertrand, announcing Napoleon’s In¬ 
tention of sailing to North America . . 2 7 

The Captain’s Answer to Bertrand . . 30 

Conversation with Savary and Las Cases . 32 

Receives private Information by a Row-boat . 36 

Captain Maitland guards the Mamusson Passage . 37 

The White Flag is hoisted at Rochelle . 38, 39 

The Bellerophon fires a Royal Salute . 38 

The French Frigates appear ready to put to Sea . 39 

English Guard-boats continue to row near the Frigates 40 
British Flag of Truce, its colour . . ib. 

The Mouche Schooner, with Las Cases and General 
Lallemand, returns to the Bellerophon . .41 

Communication delivered from Napoleon . 43 

Captain Maitland’s Reply . . 43 ^ 44 

Buonaparte stated to be at Rochefort, but is at l’Isle 
d’Aix .... 45,46 

Design for effecting the Escape of Buonaparte in a • 
Cask on board of a Danish Vessel . . 47 

Las Cases, with General Gourgaud returns to the Bel¬ 
lerophon . . . .48 

They bring an important Letter from Bertrand . 49 

List of Napoleon’s Suite . . .52 

The Emperor’s Letter to H. R. H. the Prince Regent 56 
Captain Maitland promises to receive Buonaparte . 57 

Captain Sartorius is despatched to England, with a 
Letter from Captain Maitland, and with General 
Gourgaud . . . 59 , 60 


CONTENTS. 


XI 


PAGE. 

Advice of Buonaparte’s wish to escape repeatedly 


given . . . .66 

July 15, Napoleon reaches the Bellerophon, in the 
Barge of that Ship. He comes onboard. His uni¬ 


form described 

. 69, 70 

Napoleon cheered by the Crew of l’Epervier 

. 71 

His Address to Captain Maitland 

. ib. 

The Ship’s Officers are introduced to him 

. 72 

His small knowledge of English 

. 73 

He examines the Bellerophon 

. 74 

Conversations between Napoleon and Captain Mait- 


land . . . 74,76,77,92,96,98,108 

Buonaparte’s Naval Opinions . . 75, 76, 79 

Breakfast on board the Bellerophon . .80 

Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Hotham arrives offRoche- 
fort; his Conference with Captain Maitland . .81 

The Admiral comes on board the Bellerophon . 83 

Conversation at Dinner . . • .84 

Buonaparte’s Portable Library and Camp-Bed . 83, 86 

He breakfasts on board the Admiral’s Ship . 87, 91 

Attachment for him evinced by the Officers of his 


Suite .... 

. 93, 231 

The Bellerophon sets sail for Torbay 

. 95,97 

Buonaparte speaks of Sir Sidney Smith . 

98 

The Passage to England described 

. 99, 109 

Card Parties 

. 100 

The Captain’s Despatch to Lord Keith 

. 102 

His Conversation with Countess Bertrand 

relative to 

a Portrait of Napoleon 

. 105 


Speaks with the Swiftsure, Captain Webley • 106 

Count Las Cases . • .108 


Xll 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 

English Coast in sight . . . .109 

The Bellerophon anchors in Torbay * .110 

Buonaparte’s Exclamation on viewing the Shore . ib. 

Admiral Lord Keith’s Orders . . . ib. 

English Newspapers read by Napoleon . . 114 

Observations of Madame Bertrand . . 115, 116 

Persons refused Admission on board the Bellerophon .117 
Lord Keith’s Approval of Captain Maitland’s Line of 
Conduct . . . .118,119 

Concourse of Spectators in Boats . . .117,120 

Remarks of Buonaparte respecting the Fishermen . 120 
The Ships sail for Plymouth . . 121, 123 

Observations on the Break-water . . .123 

Communications of Civility interchanged between 
Buonaparte and Lord Keith . . 119,124 

Lord Keith’s Precautions . . 125 , 127 

Buonaparte complains of the Guard-ships . .129 

The Lords of the Admiralty approve of Captain 
Maitland’s Proceedings . . .130 

Napoleon’s Letter to the Regent is forwarded . 131 

He is considered as a General Officer . .132 

Orders received from the Admiralty . .133 

Napoleon’s Compliment on seeing Mrs. Maitland . 134 
Sir Richard and Lady Strachan come along-side the 
Ship . . . . . ib. 

Admiral Lord Keith is introduced to Napoleon . 136 

Repugnance of the Prisoners to their Banishment to 

St. Helena. . . 131, 137 

Crowd of Boats round the Ship . .138 

Buonaparte’s Habits on board Ship . .139 


CONTEXTS. 


Xlll 


PAGE. 

Bertrand, Savary, and Lallemand, fear Proscrip¬ 


tion . . . 140, 143, 145 

Buonaparte informed that he was to be sent to St. 

Helena . . . .142 

Sir Henry Bunbury visits him . . ib. 

He complains bitterly . . 143,144 

He writes again to the Regent . .145 

Captain Maitland’s Letter favourable to Savary and 
Lallemand , . . 148, 155 

Buonaparte shows himself on deck . .150 

Countess Bertrand much agitated at the thoughts of 
her Husband going to St. Helena . .152 

Lallemand is reproved by Captain Maitland . 153 


Buonaparte’s Assertion that “ he would not go to St. 

Helena” . . 151, 154, 157, I 67 

Extravagant Conversation of the attendant Generals 


154, 155 

Mr. O’Meara . . . 156 


Countess Bertrand attempts to cast herself into the 


Sea . . . 157 

Her impatience ; she writes to Lord Keith . 158 

Her retrospect of Buonaparte’s conduct 158, 159 

She is overheard by the Generals . . 160 

Buonaparte’s Inquiries as to St. Helena . . 161 

Report of an Attempt to escape . . .163 

Rumour of an Intention of serving a Habeas Corpus to 
bring Buonaparte ashore . . .165 

Ship prepared for Sea . . . . ib. 

The Northumberland ordered to convey Buonaparte . ib. 
The Bellerophon weighs Anchor . . . 167 


:*iv 


CONTENTS * 


PAGE. 


Service of a Subpoena on Buonaparte frustrated, by 
keeping the Lawyer at bay 

Note respecting Writs of Habeas Corpus and Subpoe¬ 
nas . 168 , 

Buonaparte again writes to the Regent 
He keeps entirely to the Cabin ; prepares a Protest 
Buonaparte’s Protest ..... 

He declares himself to be the Guest of England, and 
no Prisoner . 

Captain Maitland’s Observations thereon . 177, 178 

Conversation on this Subject with Count Las Cases . 179 
Buonaparte speaks of the Army of the Loire, and of 
his Party ..... 

Mr. 0‘Meara requested by Buonaparte to become his 
Surgeon ..... 

The Northumberland in sight 
Arms required to be delivered up 
Lists of Articles essential for the French officers 
Ladies forwarded to Plymouth 
Sir George Cockburn is introduced to Buonaparte 
Buonaparte permitted to wear his Sword 
He requests an Interview with Captain Maitland 
He expresses his wish of living on a small Estate in 
England ..... 

He speaks in favour of Savary and Lallemand 
Captain Maitland’s Letter to Count Bertrand 
Lord Keith’s Order to the Captain to deliver up Gene¬ 
ral Buonaparte and others 

General Gourgaud .... 

Countess Bertrand’s Remonstrances 
A Misunderstanding and Reconciliation 


167 

170 

171 

172 

173 

174 


181 

182 
183 

185 

ib. 

186 
ib. 
ib. 

188 
ib. 
189 

• 1.90 
. 193 
194, 195 
. 196 


and 


CONTENTS. XV 

PAGE. 

Napoleon returns Thanks to Captain Maitland . 197 

He speaks with regard of Count Bertrand . .198 

Search of the Baggage . . . .199 

The Box of Money temporarily taken charge of . 200 
Parting of Buonaparte with the Captain . . 203 

Buonaparte, accompanying Admiral Lord Keith, quits 
the Bellerophon . . . 203, 204 

Count Montholon’s polite Intimation to Captain 
Maitland . ... 204 

The Captain declines the Present of a Portrait . 205 

Savary and Lallemand; their affecting parting with 
Napoleon in the presence of Captain Maitland . 207 
The Northumberland sails for St. Helena . . ib. 

Description of Napoleon Buonaparte . . 208 

His Manners and Conversation . . .210 

Anecdotes . . . 211,214,219,220 

He speaks of his Wife and his Son . . .215 

Their Pictures . . . . 215,216 

Conversation respecting Kleber and Dessaix . 217 

Napoleon’s Resources in Money . . . ib. 

The Midshipmen act Plays . . . 220 

Buonaparte’s Observations on the British Cavalry, and 
relative to the Duke of Wellington . 221, 222 

Character of Count Bertrand . . . 225 

Countess Bertrand, a daughter of Gen. Dillon . 226 

Savary, Duke of Rovigo described . . 227 

Savary, Lallemand, and Planat, are sent to Malta, and 
allowed to go to Smyrna . . . 228 

Character of Lallemand . ... 228 

Count and Countess Montholon . . . 229 

Count Las Cases and his Son . . . 230 




VI 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE. 


APPENDIX. 

On what Terms Captain Maitland received Buona¬ 
parte on board his Ship; and Documents relating 
thereto 


233 to 248 


NARRATIVE, 


Sfc. Sfc, 


On Wednesday the 24th of May, 1815, I 
sailed from Cawsand Bay, in command of 
His Majesty’s ship Bellerophon, and under 
the orders of Rear Admiral Sir Henry Ho- 
tham, whose flag was hoisted in the Superb. 
I received sealed instructions, part of which 
were to be opened on getting to sea, and 
part only to be examined in the event of my 
being separated from the Admiral. Those 



2 


NARRATIVE OF 


which I opened contained directions to de¬ 
tain, and send into port, all armed vessels 
belonging to the Government of France. 

On Sunday the 28th of May, we joined 
His Majesty’s ship Astrea and Telegraph, 
stationed off Isle Dieu, on a secret service; 
and the following day, three transports, under 
charge of the Helicon, arrived from England, 
having on board arms and ammunition, to 
supply the Royalists in La Vendee, for whose 
support and assistance, I now found the 
squadron, of which the Bellerophon formed 
one, was destined. 

On Tuesday the 30th of May, I received 
orders from Sir Henry Hotham, to take the 
Eridanus under my command, and proceed 
off Rochefort, for the purpose of preventing 
a corvette from putting to sea, which, ac¬ 
cording to information received by the Bri¬ 
tish Government, was to carry proposals 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


3 


from Buonaparte to the West India Colo¬ 
nies, to declare in his favour. I had like¬ 
wise orders to reconnoitre the Roadstead of 
Rochefort, and report to the Admiral the 
number and state of the ships of war lying 
there. Accordingly, on the 31st of May, I 
ran into Basque Roads, and found at anchor, 
under Isle d’Aix, two large frigates, a ship 
corvette, and a large brig, all ready for sea, 
which I afterwards ascertained to be the 
M6duse, Saale, Balladiere, and Epervier. 
Nothing occurred worth mentioning until 
the 9th of June, when the V&suve French 
corvette came in from the northward, and 
got into Rochefort, notwithstanding every 
effort to prevent her; the ships under my 
orders having been driven to the southward, 
during the night, by a strong northerly 
wind, accompanied by a southerly current. 
She was from Guadaloupe, and immediately 
on passing the Chasseron light-house, hoist¬ 
ed the tricoloured flag. 

b 2 


4 


NARRATIVE OF 


On the 18th of June, I detained and sent 
to Sir Henry Hotham, the iEneas French 
store-ship, commanded by a lieutenant of the 
navy, with a crew of fifty men, loaded with 
ship-timber for the arsenal of Rochefort; but 
he, being of opinion that she did not come 
within the intention of the order, liberated 
her. 

On the 21st of June, I detained and sent to 
the Admiral, under charge of the Eridanus, 
the Marianne French transport, from Marti¬ 
nique, having on board 220 of the 9th regi¬ 
ment of light infantry, coming to France to 
join the army under Buonaparte. The Eri¬ 
danus was sent to England with her, and did 
not return to me, being employed on other 
service. 

On the 27th of June, the Cephalus joined 
us, bringing with her the declaration of war 
against France; after which we were em- 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


5 


ployed several days, taking and destroying 
chasse-marees, and other small coasting ves¬ 
sels. 

On the 28th of June, I received intelli¬ 
gence, from one of the vessels captured, of 
Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo; and on the 
30th, a boat came off from Bourdeaux, bring¬ 
ing the following letter, without date or sub¬ 
scription, written on very thin paper in Eng¬ 
lish, and concealed within a quill. I give 
the contents verbatim. 


Copy of a letter received by Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. 
Bellerophon, off Rochefort, on the 30th of June, 1815, 
without date or subscription. 

“ With great degree of certainty, being 
informed that Buonaparte might have come 
last night through this city from Paris, 
with the new Mayor of Bourdeaux, with a 
view to flight, by the mouth of this river, or 


6 


NARRATIVE OF 


La Teste, the author of the last note sent by- 

Mr. - hastily drops these few lines, 

to give the British Admiral advice of such 
intention, that he may instantly take the ne¬ 
cessary steps, in order to seize the man. His 
ideas will certainly have brought him to 
think it natural, that the British stations 
will be less upon their guard in this quarter 
than any where else. The writer benefits by 
this opportunity to inform the Admiral that, 
since the last note, some alteration has ta¬ 
ken place with regard to the troops spread 
in these two Divisions ; in lieu of 800 to 
1000 in this city, there are now 5000, which 
is supposed owing to the intention of com¬ 
pressing the minds of this populace in this 
decisive instant. 

“ It is supposed the British Admiral is 
already informed of the Grand Army being 
totally defeated and destroyed, the abdica¬ 
tion of Buonaparte, &c. and the arrival of 
the allies near the Capital. 



C A PT A IN J\I A IT LA N D. 


7 


“ An attempt should be made on this 
Coast, with no less than 8000 men altogether. 
Immediate steps are wanted to put a stop to 
the supposed flight. 

“ Should the attempt be made on the 
Coast from La Teste to Bourdeaux, an im¬ 
mediate diversion should be made on this 
side ; the success is beyond any doubt. 

“ A sharp eye must be kept on all Ame¬ 
rican vessels, and particularly on the Sus- 
quehannah, of Philadelphia, Captain Caleb 
Cushing; General Bertrand and another 
goes with him. The two entrances of Bour¬ 
deaux and La Teste must be kept close; a 
line or two is expected, on the return of the 
bearer from the Admiral, or Chief Officer on 
the Station. As this is writing, the news 
is spread generally, that the Due de Berri 
and Lord Wellington are in Paris.” 

The note alluded to had been received. 


8 


NARRATIVE OF 


and forwarded unopened, to the Admiral in 
Quiberon Bay. 

Though my attention was called so strongly 
to Bourdeaux, or la Teste d’Arcasson, as the 
parts of the coast from whence Buonaparte 
would probably attempt to escape, it was 
my decided opinion that Rochefort was 
much more likely to be the port where the 
trial would be made. I therefore sent the 
Myrmidon off Bourdeaux, the Cephalus to 
Arcasson, and remained with only the Bel- 
lerophon, off Rochefort. From this period, 
until my return to England, the ship was 
never, by day or night, more than three miles 
from the land. Considering it of much im¬ 
portance to communicate the intelligence 
contained in the letter from Bourdeaux, to 
my commanding officer, with as little delay 
as possible; as I had no vessel left with me, 
after detaching the two ships under my 
orders, I sent the Bellerophon’s barge, under 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


9 


the charge of a lieutenant, with directions 
to endeavour to join some one of the crui¬ 
sers stationed off Isle Dieu. I gave him an 
order, addressed to the Captain of any of 
His Majesty’s ships he might fall in with, 
to proceed without loss of time, to join the 
Admiral in Quiberon Bay, with the despatch 
accompanying it. This boat was fortunate 
enough to fall in with His Majesty’s ship 
Cyrus, Captain Carrol; who, in consequence, 
after hoisting in the barge, proceeded to 
Quiberon Bay. 

As the coasting-vessels were not worth 
sending into port for condemnation, and, 
considering the circumstances under which 
the ship I commanded was placed, I should 
not have felt justified in weakening her com¬ 
plement, even for a prize of value. I was in 
the habit of using such captures, as marks 
for the men to practice firing at. The Ce- 
phalus had a chasse-marte in tow for that 


10 


NARRATIVE OF 


purpose, when the letter, inserted above, was 
received; and I detached her so shortly 
afterwards, that Captain Furneaux had no 
opportunity of destroying her, but was ob¬ 
liged to cast her off. After he had left me 
some time, I observed the vessel drifting to 
sea, and determined to run down and sink 
her. While approaching her in this view, 
I was sweeping the horizon with my glass, 
when I discovered, at a considerable dis¬ 
tance, a small white speck on the water, 
which had the appearance of a child’s boat 
with paper sails; but I could plainly per¬ 
ceive something that had motion in it; and, 
after firing on and destroying the chasse- 
mar6e, I stood towards the object which had 
engaged my attention, and found it to be a 
small punt, about eight feet long, flat-bottom¬ 
ed, and shaped more like a butcher’s tray than 
a boat. In it were a young man about eighteen 
years of age, and a boy about twelve, who 
had got into the punt to amuse themselves, 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


11 


and, happening to lose one of their oars, were 
drifted to sea. They had been thirty-six 
hours without refreshment of any kind, and 
with only one oar and a bit of board, which 
they had formed into something like another; 
they were quite exhausted with fatigue, and 
their hands very much blistered. When we 
picked them up, there was a strong breeze 
blowing off the land, so that there cannot be 
a doubt, had not Providence sent us to their 
assistance, they must have perished. I kept 
the boys on board two or three days, for 
the purpose of recruiting their strength, and 
then landed them with the punt, close to 
their village, to the great joy and wonder of 
their parents and countrymen. 

On the first of July, we spoke a ship from 
Rochefort, the master of which gave infor¬ 
mation, that the frigates, in Aix-roads, had 
taken in their powder, and were in all re¬ 
spects ready to put to sea; also, that several 


12 


NARRATIVE OF 


gentlemen in plain clothes, and some ladies, 
supposed to form part of Buonaparte’s suite, 
had arrived at Isle d’Aix. In short, upon 
the whole, that there was little doubt of its 
being his intention to effect his escape, if 
possible, from that place, in the frigates. On 
receiving this information, I anchored the 
Bellerophon as close to the French squadron 
as the batteries would permit, kept guard- 
boats rowing all night, and prepared my 
ship’s company for the description of action, 
in which I thought it was probable they 
would be engaged. I trained one hundred 
of the stoutest men, selecting them from the 
different stations in the ship; it being my 
intention, after firing into and silencing one 
frigate, to run the Bellerophon alongside of 
her; throw that party in, and then, leaving 
her in charge of the first lieutenant, to have 
proceeded in chase of the other. 


His Majesty’s ship Phoebe joined us this 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


13 


evening, and brought with her the Bellero- 
phon’s barge. Captain Hillyar having orders 
to take a station off Bourdeaux, I recalled 
the Myrmidon from that service. 

On the 7th of July, I received a letter 
from Sir Henry Hotham, together with fresh 
orders, from which the following are ex¬ 
tracts :— 


Extract of a letter from Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Hotham, 

K. C. B. addressed to Captain Maitland of H. M. S. 

Bellerophon, dated Quiberon Bay, July 6, 1815. 

“ It is impossible to tell which informa¬ 
tion respecting Buonaparte’s flight may be 
correct; but, in the uncertainty, it is right to 
attach a certain degree of credit to all: that 
which I now act on, is received this morning, 
from the chief of the Royalists, between the 
Loire and the Vilaine. 


14 


NARRATIVE OF 


“ Although the force of the Bellerophon 
would be sufficient for the ships at Isle 
d’Aix, if they were to give you an opportunity 
of bringing them to action together, you can¬ 
not stop them both, if the frigates separate; 
I am, therefore, now anxious you should have 
a frigate with you : therefore if any of them 
should be with you, keep her for the time I 
have specified; but if you have no frigate, 
and this should be brought to you by a 
twenty-gun ship, keep her with you for the 
same time ; she will do to keep sight of a 
French frigate, although she could not stop 
her. 


“ If this is delivered to you by Lord John 
Hay of the Opossum, do not detain him, as 
her force would be of no use to you, and I 
want him particularly , to examine vessels 
which sail from the Loire.” 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


15 


Extract of an Order from Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Ho- 
tham, K. C. B. ; addressed to Captain Maitland of 
H. M. S. Bellerophon, dated Superb, Quiberon Bay, 
6th July, 1815. 

“ Having this morning received informa¬ 
tion that it is believed Napoleon Buonaparte 
has taken his road from Paris for Rochefort, 
to embark from thence for the United States 
of America, I have to direct you will use 
your best endeavours to prevent him from 
making his escape in either of the frigates at 
Isle d’Aix; for which purpose you are, not¬ 
withstanding former orders, to keep any fri¬ 
gate which may be with you, at the time you 
receive this letter, in company with the ship 
you command, for the space of ten days, to 
enable you to intercept them in case they 
should put to sea together: but if you 
should have no frigate with you at the above 
time, you will keep the ship delivering this, 
(which will probably be the Slaney or Cy¬ 
rus,) in company with the Bellerophon, ten 


16 


NARRATIVE OF 


days, and then allow her to proceed in exe¬ 
cution of the orders her Captain has receiv¬ 
ed from me.” 

The Slaney brought the letter and order, 
parts of which are extracted above, and hav¬ 
ing no frigate in company, I detained her as 
part of the force under my command, though 
she was, on the 8th, sent down to the Mamus- 
son passage, with orders for Captain Green 
of the Daphne, and did not return until the 
evening of the 11th. 

On the 8th of July, I was joined by a 
chasse-mar6e bringing a letter from Sir 
Henry Hotham, part of which is as follows:— 

Extract of a letter from Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Ho¬ 
tham, K. C. B. addressed to Captain Maitland, of 
H. M. S. Bellerophon, dated Superb, Quiberon Bay, 
July 7 ) 1815. 

“ Having sent every ship and vessel out 
from this bay, to endeavour to intercept 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


17 


Buonaparte, I am obliged to send the chasse 
mar6e, which has been employed in my 
communications with the Royalists, with 
this letter, to acquaint you that the Ferret 
brought me information last evening, after 
the Opossum had left me, from Lord Keith, 
that Government received, on the night of 
the 30th, an application from the rulers of 
France, for a passport and safe conduct for 
Buonaparte to America, which had been 
answered in the negative, and, therefore, 
directing an increase of vigilance to inter¬ 
cept him : but it remains quite uncertain 
where he will embark; and, although it 
would appear by the measures adopted at 
home, that it is expected he will sail from 
one of the northern ports, I am of opinion 
he will go from one of the southern places, 
and I think the information I sent you yes¬ 
terday by the Opossum is very likely to be 
correct; namely, that he had taken the road 
to Rochefort; and that he will probably 
c 


18 


NARRATIVE OF 


embark in the frigates at Isle d’Aix; for 
which reason I am very anxious you should 
have force enough to stop them both, as the 
Bellerophon could only take one, if they 
separated, and that might not be the one he 
would be on board of. I have no frigate to 
send you; if one should join me in time, I 
will send her to you, and I hope you will 
have two twenty-gun ships with you. I ima¬ 
gine, from what you said in your letter by 
your barge, that you would not have kept 
the Endymion with you, especially as the 
Myrmidon would have rejoined you, by the 
arrangements I sent down by the Phoebe for 
Sir John Sinclair to take her place off the 
Mamusson ; therefore, I trust that my last 
order to Captain Hope will not have de¬ 
prived you of his assistance, but hope it 
may have put him in a better situation than 
before. The Liffey is seventy or eighty 
miles west from Bourdeaux, and the Pacto- 
lus, after landing some person in the Gironde* 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


19 


goes off Cape Finisterre, where the Swiftsure 
is also gone; and many ships are looking 
out in the Channel and about the latitude of 
Ushant. 

“ Buonaparte is certainly not yet gone; I 
presume he would naturally await the an¬ 
swer from our Government, which only left 
London on the 1st; my own opinion is, that 
he will either go with a force that will afford 
him some kind of security, or in a merchant 
vessel to avoid suspicion. 

“ The orders from the Admiralty, received 
last evening, are, that the ships which are 
looking out for him, should remain on that 
service till further orders , or till they know he 
is taken , and not regard the time of ten days 
or a fortnight, which they first named : there¬ 
fore you will govern yourself by that, and 
keep any ship you have with you till one 
of those events occurs, without attending, 
c 2 


20 


NARRATIVE OE 


to the ten days I specified in my letter to 
you by the Opossum yesterday, and make 
the same known to any ship you may com¬ 
municate with. The information you sent 
me, which had been transmitted to you 
from Bourdeaux, is now proved to have been 
erroneous, by our knowing that Buonaparte 
was at Paris as late as the 30th of June, and 
that paper must have been written on the 
29th, as you received it on the 30th. The 
Eridanus will not rejoin you ; she has been 
stationed, by Lord Keith, off Brest.” 


“ Let me know by the return of the 
chasse-mar6e, particularly, what ships you 
have with you, and where the other ships 
are, as far as you know, and what position 
you keep in. If you had ships enough to 
guard Basque roads, and the Channel be¬ 
tween Isle d’Oleron and the long sand 
(where a frigate may pass), you would be 
sure of keeping them in, by anchoring; but 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


21 


that would afford you little chance of taking 
Buonaparte, which is the thing to be de¬ 
sired ; therefore I think you would be better 
off the light-house, where I dare say you keep 
yourself; and on that particular subject I 
do not think it necessary to give you any 
instructions, as I depend on your using the 
best means that can be adopted to intercept 
the fugitive; on whose captivity the repose 
of Europe appears to depend. If he should 
be taken, he is to be brought to me in this 
bay, as I have orders for his disposal; he is 
to be removed from the ship in which he may 
be found, to one of his Majesty’s ships.” 

Nothing of consequence occurred on the 
9th; but on the 10th of July, at day-light, the 
officer of the watch informed me that a small 
schooner was standing out from the French 
squadron towards the ship: upon which I 
ordered every thing to be ready for making 
sail in chace, supposing she might be sent 


22 


NARRATIVE OF 


for the purpose of reconnoitring. On ap¬ 
proaching, she hoisted a flag of truce, and 
joined us at seven A. M. She proved to be 
the Mouche, tender to the ships of war at 
Isle d’Aix, and had on board, General Savary 
Due de Rovigo, and Count Las Cases, cham¬ 
berlain to Buonaparte, charged with a letter 
from Count Bertrand (Grand Marechal de 
Palais) addressed to the Admiral command¬ 
ing the British Cruisers before the port of 
Rochefort. 

Soon after the Mouche arrived, I was join¬ 
ed by the Falmouth, bringing me a letter and 
secret orders from Sir Henry Hotham, some 
extracts from which I shall insert for the bet¬ 
ter understanding what follows, previous to 
entering into what passed with Buonaparte’s 
attendants. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


23 


Extract of a letter from Rear Admiral Sir Henry Hotliam, 
K. C. B. addressed to Captain Maitland,, of H. M. S. 
Bellerophon ; not dated, but must have been written on 
the 8th of July, 1815. 

“ I sent a chasse mar6e to you yesterday 
with a letter, and you will now receive by 
the Falmouth, officially, the orders which I 
therein made you acquainted with. 

“ I send you four late and very interest¬ 
ing French papers, by which you will see 
all that has been done and said on the subject 
of providing for Buonaparte’s escape from 
France: you will see that the Minister of 
the Marine had been directed to prepare 
ships of war for that purpose; that they were 
placed at Buonaparte’s disposal; and that 
two frigates in particular had been provided 
for him : also that it was announced to the 
two Chambers, that he left Paris at four 
o’clock on the 29th; likewise that it was 


24 


NARRATIVE OF 


believed in Paris, he had taken the road by 
Orleans to Rochefort; and I have no doubt 
that the two frigates at Isle d’Aix are in¬ 
tended for him, and I hope you will think so 
too, and I am sure you will use your utmost 
endeavours to intercept him. I am sorry 1 
have not a frigate to send you ; I have lite¬ 
rally none but the Endymion under my or¬ 
ders. Captain Paterson is off Brest, by Lord 
Keith’s order; and the Phoebe is also or¬ 
dered to that station, when the Hebrus ar¬ 
rives off the Gironde. 

“ The attention at home appears to be 
paid chiefly to the ports in the Channel, but 
I have received no additional means what¬ 
ever to guard those of the Bay. I have 
long been expecting a frigate from the Irish 
station, but none has yet appeared; and I 
have written to Lord Keith for two frigates; 
but they cannot join me in time, I fear.” 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


25 


Extract of an order from Rear-Admiral Sir Henry Ho- 
tham, K. C. B. addressed to Captain Maitland, of 
H. M. S. Bellerophon, dated H. M. S. Superb, Qui- 
beron Bay, 8th July, 1815. 

“ The Lords Commissioners of the Admi¬ 
ralty having every reason to believe that 
Napoleon Buonaparte meditates his escape, 
with his family, from France to America, 
you are hereby required and directed, in 
pursuance of orders from their Lordships, 
signified to me by Admiral the Right Ho¬ 
norable Viscount Keith, to keep the most 
vigilant look-out for the purpose of intercept¬ 
ing him; and to make the strictest search of 
any vessel you may fall in with ; and if you 
should be so fortunate as to intercept him, 
you are to transfer him and his family to the 
ship you command, and there keeping him 
in careful custody, return to the nearest 
port in England (going into Torbay in pre¬ 
ference to Plymouth) with all possible ex- 


26 


NARRATIVE OF 


pedition; and on your arrival you are not to 
permit any communication whatever with 
the shore, except as herein after directed; 
and you will be held responsible for keep¬ 
ing the whole transaction a profound secret, 
until you receive their Lordships’ further 
orders. 

“ In case you should arrive at a port 
where there is a flag-officer, you are to send 
to acquaint him with the circumstances, 
strictly charging the officer sent on shore 
with your letter, not to divulge its contents : 
and if there should be no flag-officer at the 
port where you arrive, you are to send one 
letter express to the Secretary of the Ad¬ 
miralty, and another to Admiral Lord Keith, 
with strict injunctions of secrecy to each 
officer who may be the bearer of them.” 

Messrs. Savary and Las Cases, who came 
on board, from the Schooner above mention- 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


27 


ed, at seven o’clock on the 10th of July, 
presented the following letter to me :— 

“ Le 9 Juillet, 1015. 

“ Monsieur l’Amiral, 

" L’Empereur Napoleon ayant abdiqu6 le 
pouvoir, et choisi les fitats Unis d’Am6- 
rique pour s’vrefugier, s’est embarqu£ sur les 
deux frigates qui sont dans cette rade, pour 
se rendre a sa destination. II attend le sauf 
conduit du Gouvernement Anglais, qu’on lui 
a annonc£, et qui me porte a exp6dier le pre¬ 
sent parlementaire, pour vous demander, 
Mons. l’Amiral, si vous avez connoissance du 
dit sauf conduit; ou si vous pensez qu’il soit 
dans 1’ intention du Gouvernement Anglais de 
se mettre de l’emp6chement a notre voyage 
aux Etats Unis. Je vous serai extr&mement 
oblige de me donner la-dessus les renseigne- 
mens que vous pouvez avoir. 


“ Je charge les porteurs de la presente 


28 


NARRATIVE OF 


lettre de vous faire agreer mes remercimens 
et mes excuses, pour la peine qu’elle a pu 
vous donner.” 

“ J’ai l’honneur d’etre, 

Monsieur l’Amiral, 

de Votre Excellence, &c. &c. 

Le Grand Marshal Ct e . Bertrand.” 

“ A' Monsieur l’Amiral commandant 
les Croisieres avant Rochefort.” 


TRANSLATION. 

“ Sir, 

“The Emperor Napoleon having abdicated 
the throne of France, and chosen the United 
States of America as a retreat, is, with his 
suite, at present embarked on board the 
two frigates which are in this port, for the 
purpose of proceeding to his destination. 
He expects a passport from the British Go¬ 
vernment, which has been promised to him, 
and which induces me to send the present 
flag of truce, to demand of you, Sir, if you 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


29 


have any knowledge of the above-mentioned 
passport, or if you think it is the intention 
of the British Government to throw any im¬ 
pediment in the way of our voyage to the 
United States. I shall feel much obliged by 
your giving me any information you may 
possess on the subject. 

“ I have directed the bearers of this letter 
to present to you my thanks, and to apolo¬ 
gize for the trouble it may cause. 

“ I have the honour to be. 

Your Excellency’s most obedient, &c. &c. 

Grand Marshal Count Bertrand.” 

“ To the Admiral commanding the 
Squadron before Rochefort.” 


The bearers of the letter had instructions 
to demand of me, whether I would prevent 
Buonaparte from proceeding in a neutral ves¬ 
sel, provided I could not permit the frigates 
to pass with him on board. Having received, 


30 


NARRATIVE OF 


in my orders, the strictest injunctions to se¬ 
crecy, and feeling that the force on the coast, 
at my disposal, was insufficient to guard the 
different ports and passages from which an 
escape might be effected, particularly should 
the plan be adopted of putting to sea in a 
small vessel; I wrote the following reply to 
the above communication; hoping, by that 
means, to induce Napoleon to remain for the 
Admiral’s answer, which would give time for 
the arrival of reinforcements. 


“ H. M. S. Bellerophon, 
off Rochefort, July 10th, 1815. 

“Sir, 

“ I have to acknowledge the receipt of your 
letter of yesterday’s date, addressed to the 
Admiral commanding the English cruisers 
before Rochefort, acquainting me that the 
Emperor, having abdicated the throne of 
France, and chosen the United States of 
America as an asylum, is now embarked on 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


31 


board the frigates, to proceed for that desti¬ 
nation, and awaits a passport from the Eng¬ 
lish Government; and requesting to know 
if I have any knowledge of such passport; 
or if I think it is the intention of the Eng¬ 
lish Government to prevent the Emperor’s 
voyage. 

“In reply, I have to acquaint you, that I 
cannot say what the intentions of my Govern¬ 
ment may be; but, the two countries being 
at present in a state of war, it is impossible 
for me to permit any ship of war to put to 
sea from the port of Rochefort. 

“ As to the proposal made by the Due de 
Rovigo and Count Las Cases, of allowing the 
Emperor to proceed in a merchant vessel; it 
is out of my power,—without the sanction of 
my commanding officer, Sir Henry Hotham, 
who is at present in Quiberon Bay, and to 
whom I have forwarded your despatch,—to 


32 


NARRATIVE OF 


allow any vessel, under whatever flag she 
may be, to pass with a personage of such 
consequence. 

“ I have the honour to be, 

Sir, 

Your very humble servant, 

Fred. L. Maitland, 
Captain of H. M. S. Bellerophon. ’ 
“ Le Grand Marechal 

Comte Bertrand.” 

The Duke of Rovigo and Count Las Cases 
remained on board between two and three 
hours, during which time I had a great deal 
of conversation with them, on the state of 
affairs in France; in which they did all they 
could to impress me with the idea that Buo¬ 
naparte was not reduced to the necessity of 
quitting Europe; but that, in doing so, he 
was actuated solely by motives of humanity; 
being unwilling, they said, that any further 
effusion of blood should take place on his 
account. They declared also, that his party 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


33 


was still very formidable in the centre and 
south of France, and that, if he chose to pro¬ 
tract the war, he might still give a great 
deal of trouble ; and that, although his ulti¬ 
mate success might not be probable, there 
was still a possibility of fortune turning in 
his favour, and therefore they argued it was 
the interest of England to allow him to pro¬ 
ceed to America. To all this I could give 
little or no reply, being quite ignorant of 
what had occurred in France, further than 
the decisive victory obtained by the Duke 
of Wellington at Waterloo. During the time 
the Frenchmen were with me, I received 
some French newspapers from Sir Henry 
Hotham ; but my time was so fully occupied 
in writing to him, and in discussions with 
my visitors, that it was not in my power to 
read them : I therefore drew them back to 
the subject that had occasioned their visit, 
and said, " Supposing the British Govern- 


D 


34 NARRATIVE OF 

ment should be induced to grant a passport 
for Buonaparte’s going to America, what 
pledge could he give that he would not 
return, and put England, as well as all Eu¬ 
rope, to the same expense of blood and 
treasure that has just been incurred ?” 

General Savary made the following reply : 
“ When the Emperor first abdicated the 
throne of France, his removal was brought 
about by a faction, at the head of which 
was Talleyrand, and the sense of the nation 
was not consulted : but in the present in¬ 
stance he has voluntarily resigned the pow¬ 
er. The influence he once had over the 
French people is past; a very considerable 
change has taken place in their sentiments 
towards him, since he went to Elba; and 
he could never regain the power he had 
over their minds : therefore he would prefer 
retiring into obscurity, where he might end 
his days in peace and tranquillity ; and were 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


35 


he solicited to ascend the throne again, he 
would decline it.” 

C( If that is the case,” I said, “why not 
ask an asylum in England ?” He answered, 
“ There are many reasons for his not wish¬ 
ing to reside in England : the climate is too 
damp and cold ; it is too near France; he 
would be, as it were, in the centre of every 
change and revolution that might take place 
there, and would be subject to suspicion; 
he has been accustomed to consider the 
English as his most inveterate enemies, and 
they have been induced to look upon him as 
a monster, without one of the virtues of a 
human being.” 

This conversation took place while I was 
writing my despatches to Sir Henry Ho- 
tham; and the Frenchmen were walking ih 
the cabin, frequently interrupting me, to en¬ 
force their statement of Buonaparte’s situ- 
d 2 


36 


NARKATIVE OF 


ation being by no means so desperate as 
might be supposed; from which I took the 
liberty of drawing a conclusion directly op¬ 
posite to the one they were desirous of im¬ 
pressing on my mind. 

Captain Knight, of the Falmouth, who 
carried my despatches to the Admiral, was 
present during the whole of this conversa¬ 
tion, but did not join in it. This was the 
first certain information I had received of 
Buonaparte’s position since the battle of 
Waterloo. 

Tuesday, the 11th.—About noon, a small 
boat came off from the Island of Oleron, to 
where the ship was at anchor in Basque 
Roads, rowed by four men, in which sat 
two respectable-looking countrymen, who 
asked for the Captain ; and upon my being 
pointed out to them, requested to speak with 
me in private. When shown into the cabin, 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


37 


where I went accompanied by Captain 
Gambler, of the Myrmidon, they acquainted 
me, that a message had been sent from Isle 
d’Aix, early that morning, for a man who 
was considered the best pilot on the island 
for the Mamusson passage, being the only 
person that had ever taken a frigate through; 
that a large sum of money had been offered 
to him to pilot a vessel to sea from that 
passage, and that it certainly was Buona¬ 
parte’s intention to escape from thence; 
either in the corvette, which had moved 
down some days before, or in a Danish brig, 
which was then lying at anchor near the 
entrance. 

On receiving this information, I imme¬ 
diately got under weigh, and though the 
flood-tide had just made in, beat the ships 
out of the Pertuis d’Antioche before it was 
dark, when I sent the Myrmidon off the 
Mamusson, with orders to anchor close in 


38 


NARRATIVE OF 


with the entrance, when the weather would 
admit of it; while I remained with the Bel- 
lerophon and Slaney, which rejoined me that 
evening, under weigh between the light¬ 
houses. 

On the 12th of July, the Cyrus being seen 
in the offing, I ordered her by telegraph to 
take a position close in with the Baleine 
light-house, and to examine strictly every 
vessel that might attempt to put to sea from 
the Pertuis de Breton, as Buonaparte was 
on the spot, endeavouring to escape to 
America. 

The same evening, the white flag made its 
appearance for the first time on the towers 
of Rochelle; on seeing which, I felt it my 
duty to run into Basque Roads, accompanied 
by the Slaney; and having anchored, I 
hoisted the Bourbon colours at the main-top¬ 
gallant mast-head, and fired a royal salute. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


39 


During the whole of this afternoon, however, 
two tri-coloured flags were kept flying in 
Rochelle ; and before sun-set all the white 
flags were struck, and every where replaced 
by those of Buonaparte. 

On the 13th of July, nothing of importance 
occurred, except the white flag being once 
more hoisted all over Rochelle, as well as on 
the Isle of Oleron, to the entire exclusion of 
the tri-coloured ensign. We could plainly 
perceive, that the frigates, from whom we 
were distant about three miles, were per¬ 
fectly ready to put to sea, should an oppor¬ 
tunity offer; having their sterns covered 
with vegetables, their top-gallant yards 
across, studding sail gear rove, and numerous 
boats passing between them and the island 
the whole day :—all indications, well known 
to professional men, of preparing for sea. 


The ships under my command were ac- 


40 


NARRATIVE OF 


cordingly kept with slip buoys on their 
cables, and, as soon as it was dark, the top¬ 
sail and top-gallant yards were swayed to 
the mast-heads, the sails stopt with rope 
yarns, and every thing kept ready to make 
sail at a moment’s warning. Guard-boats 
were also kept rowing-all night, as near 
the frigates as they could venture, having 
signals established to show in the event of 
the enemy getting under sail. 

On the 14th of July, at day-break, the 
officer of the watch informed me, that the 
Mouche was standing out from Isle d’Aix, 
bearing a flag of truce, which I ordered 
to be accepted. Here it is necessary to 
mention, that the British flag of truce, being 
a white flag at the foretop-gallant mast¬ 
head, which was also hoisted as a matter 
of course when Buonaparte was received 
on board, has by some persons been con¬ 
strued into the Bourbon flag, and thence 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


41 


into an intentional insult to him. It never 
was my intention, nor do I believe it could 
have been that of any British officer, to 
treat with insult any fallen enemy, much 
less one who had shown such confidence 
as to throw himself on the protection of 
his former foe. 

When the schooner, the Mouche, reached 
the ship, Count Las Cases came on board, 
attended by General Count Lallemand. 
This meeting was highly interesting to me, 
as Lallemand had been a prisoner for three 
weeks in the Camelion under my com¬ 
mand in Egypt, with Junot, whose Aid-de- 
Camp he then was; and General Savary, 
who accompanied Count Las Cases in his 
first visit to the Bellerophon, had lived 
nearly as long at Sir Sydney Smith’s table 
with me, at the Turkish camp at El Arish, 
when the convention, which takes its name 
from that place, was under discussion, being 


42 


N A It 11 ATI VE OF 


Aid-de-Camp to General Dessaix, who ne¬ 
gotiated on the part of the French. 

On their coming on board, I made the 
signal for the Captain of the Slaney, being 
desirous of having a witness to any con¬ 
versation that might pass, as our commu¬ 
nications were chiefly verbal: he arrived 
while we were at breakfast. 

When Count Las Cases came on the 
quarter-deck, he informed me that he was 
sent off to learn whether I had received 
an answer from the Admiral to the letter 
he had brought off on the 10th instant. I 
told him that I had not, but, in consequence 
of the despatch which I had forwarded to 
him, I had not a doubt he would imme¬ 
diately repair here in person, and I was 
hourly in expectation of seeing him, adding, 
“ If that was the only reason you had for 
sending off a flag of truce, it was quite 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


43 


unnecessary, as I informed you, when last 
here, that the Admiral’s answer, when it 
arrived, should be forwarded to the frigates 
by one of the Bellerophon’s boats; and I do 
not approve of frequent communications 
with an enemy by means of flags of truce.” 
I then went into the cabin and ordered 
breakfast, to prevent further discussion until 
the arrival of Captain Sartorius. 

When breakfast was over, we retired to 
the after-cabin. Count Las Cases then said, 
“ The Emperor is so anxious to spare the fur¬ 
ther effusion of human blood, that he will 
proceed to America in any way the British 
Government chooses to sanction, either in a 
French ship of war, a vessel armed en flute , 
a merchant vessel, or even in a British ship 
of war.” To this I answered, “I have no 
authority to agree to any arrangement of 
that sort, nor do I believe my Government 
would consent to it; but I think I may ven- 


44 


NARRATIVE OF 


ture to receive him into this ship, and con¬ 
vey him to England : if, however,” I added, 
“ he adopts that plan, I cannot enter into any 
promise, as to the reception he may meet 
with, as, even in the case I have mentioned, 
I shall be acting on my own responsibility, 
and cannot be sure that it would meet with 
the approbation of the British Government.” 

There was a great deal of conversation on 
this subject, in the course of which Lucien 
Buonaparte’s name was mentioned, and the 
manner in which he had lived in England 
alluded to; but I invariably assured Las 
Cases most explicitly, that I had no autho¬ 
rity to make conditions of any sort, as to 
Napoleon’s reception in England. In fact, 
I could not have done otherwise, since, with 
the exception of the order inserted at page 
25, I had no instructions for my guidance, 
and was, of course, in total ignorance of the 
intention of His Majesty’s ministers as to 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


45 


his future disposal. One of the last obser¬ 
vations Las Cases made before quitting the 
ship was, “ Under all circumstances, I have 
little doubt that you will see the Emperor 
on board the Bellerophonand, in fact, 
Buonaparte must have determined on that 
step before Las Cases came on board, as his 
letter to his Royal Highness the Prince 
Regent is dated the 13th of July, the day 
before this conversation. 

During the above-mentioned conversation, 
I asked Las Cases where Buonaparte then 
was ? he replied, “At Rochefort; I left him 
there yesterday evening.” General Lalle- 
mand then said, “ The Emperor lives at the 
Hotel in the Grand Place, and is now so 
popular there, that the inhabitants assemble 
every evening in front of the house, for the 
purpose of seeing him, and crying, ‘ Vive 
l’Empereur!’ ” 


46 


NARRATIVE OF 


I then asked how long it would take to go 
there : Las Cases answered, “ As the tide 
will be against us, it will require five or six 
hours.” Why these false statements were 
made, I cannot pretend to say; but it is 
very certain that Buonaparte never quitted 
the frigates or Isle d'Aix, after his arrival 
there on the 3d of July. 

General Lallemand took occasion to ask 
me if I thought there would be any risk of 
the people, who might accompany Buona¬ 
parte, being given up to the Government of 
France : I replied, <f Certainly not; the Bri¬ 
tish Government never could think of doing 
so, under the circumstances contemplated 
in the present arrangement.” 

They left me about half-past nine A. M. 
In the course of the day, I was joined by 
the Myrmidon, Captain Gambier, who had 
been sent to me by Captain Green, of the 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


47 


Daphne, with a letter he had received from 
Captain Aylmer, of the Pactolus, in the Gi¬ 
ronde, bringing information that it was the 
intention of Buonaparte to escape from 
Rochefort in a Danish sloop, concealed in a 
cask stowed in the ballast, with tubes so 
constructed as to convey air for his breath¬ 
ing. I afterwards inquired of General Sa- 
vary, if there had been any foundation for 
such a report; when he informed me that 
the plan had been thought of, and the vessel 
in some measure prepared; but it was con¬ 
sidered too hazardous ; for had we detained 
the vessel for a day or two, he would have 
been obliged to make his situation known, 
and thereby forfeited all claims to the good 
treatment he hoped to ensure by a voluntary 
surrender. 

The two Captains dined with me, and 
afterwards went on board the Myrmidon, to 
take up a position to the north-east of the 


48 


NARRATIVE OF 


Bellerophon, to prevent vessels from passing 
close in shore, and thus to render the block¬ 
ade of the port more complete. 

Soon after they left me, a barge was per¬ 
ceived rowing off from the frigates towards 
the Bellerophon with a flag-of-truce up; on 
which I recalled Captains Sartorius and Gam- 
bier, by signal, that they might be present at 
any communication that was to be made. 
The boat got along-side about seven P. M. 
and brought Count Las Cases, accompa¬ 
nied by General Baron Gourgaud, one of 
Buonaparte’s Aid-de-Camps. On their com¬ 
ing on deck, I immediately addressed Las 
Cases, saying, “It is impossible you could 
have been at Rochefort, and returned, since 
you left me this morning.” He replied, “ No ; 
it was not necessary; I found the Emperor 
at Isle d’Aix, on my arrival there.” He then 
told me, he was charged with a letter from 
General Bertrand. We walked into the cabin, 
when he delivered it to me; it was as follows. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


49 


“ Le 14 Juillet, 1815. 

“ Monsieur le Commandant, 

“ Monsieur le Comte de Las Cases a rendu 
compte a l’Empereur de la conversation qu’il 
k eue ce matin a votre bord. S. M. se rendra 
k la mar£e de demain, vers quatre ou cinq 
heures du matin, k bord de votre vaisseau. 
Je vous envoye Monsieur le Comte de Las 
Cases, Conseiller d'Etat, faisant fonction de 
Marechal de Logis, avec la liste des personnes 
composant la suite de S. M. Si l’Amiral, en 
consequence de la demande que vous lui 
avez adress^e, vous envoye le sauf conduit 
demand6 pour les Etats Unis, S. M. s’y 
rendra avec plaisir; mais au d6faut du sauf 
conduit, il se rendra volontiers en Angleterre, 
comme simple particulier, pour y jouir de la 
protection des loix de votre pays. 

“ S. M. a exp6di6 Monsieur le Marshal 
de Camp Baron Gourgaud aupr£s du 

E 


50 


NARRATIVE OF 


Prince Regent, avec une lettre, dont j’ai 
l’honneur de vous envoyer copie, vous priant 
de la faire passer au Ministre auquel vous 
croyez n6cessaire d’envoyer cet officier g6n£- 
ral, afin qu’il ait l’honneur de remettre au 
Prince Regent la lettre dont il est charge. 

“ J’ai l’honneur d’etre, 

Monsieur le Commandant, 
Votre trks humble et trks ob^issant Serviteur, 
Le Grand Marshal, 
Comte Bertrand.” 

“ A Monsieur le Commandant 
des Croisieres devant Rochefort.” 


TRANSLATION. 

“ Sir, 

“Count Las Cases has reported to the 
Emperor the conversation which he had 
with you this morning. His Majesty will 
proceed on board your ship with the ebb 
tide to-morrow morning, between four and 
five o’clock. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


51 


“ I send the Count Las Cases, Counsellor 
of State, doing the duty of Marechal de 
Logis, with the list of persons composing* 
His Majesty’s suite. 

“ If the Admiral, in consequence of the 
despatch you forwarded to him, should send 
the passport for the United States therein 
demanded. His Majesty will be happy to 
repair to America; but should the passport 
be withheld, he will willingly proceed to 
England, as a private individual, there to 
enjoy the protection of the laws of your 
country. 

“His Majesty has despatched Major Ge¬ 
neral Baron Gourgaud to the Prince Regent 
with a letter, a copy of which I have the 
honour to enclose, requesting that you will 
forward it to such one of the ministers as 
you may think it necessary to send that 
general officer, that he may have the honour 
e 2 


52 


NARRATIVE OF 


of delivering the letter with which he is 
charged to the Prince Regent. 

“ I have the honour to be, 

Sir, 

Your very humble servant, 

Count Bertrand.” 

“ To the Officer commanding the 
Cruizers off Rochefort.” 

List of persons composing the suite of Napoleon Buona¬ 
parte, enclosed in the above Letter, and the manner in 
which they were distributed during the passage to Eng¬ 
land. 


Bellerophon. 

Generaux. 

Le Lieutenant General Comte Bertrand, G d . Mar&chal. 
Le Lieutenant General Due de Rovigo. 

Le Lieutenant General Baron Lallemand Aide de Camp 
de S. M. 


Le Marechal de Camp Comte de Montholon Aide de Camp 
de S. M. 

Le Comte de Las Cases Conseiller d’Etat. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND 


53 


Dames. 

Madame la Comtesse Bertrand. 

Madame la Comtesse de Montholon. 

Enfans. 

3 Enfans de Madame la Comtesse Bertrand. 

1 Enfant de Madame la Comtesse de Montholon. 


Officiers. 

M. de Planat, Lieutenant-Colonel. 
M. Maingaut, Chirurgien de S. M. 
M. Las Cases, Page. 


Service de la Chambre. 


M. M. Marchand 
Gilli 

St. Dennis 

Novarra 

Denis 


1 Valet de Chambre. 
Valet de Chambre. 
Valet de Chambre. 
Idem. 

Garcon de Garderobe. 


Livree. 


Archambaud 

Gaudron 

Gentilini 


1 Valet de pied. 
Valet de pied. 
Id. 


54 


NARRATIVE OF 


Service de la Bouche. 


M.M. Fontain 
Pieron 
La Fosse 
Le Page 


1 Maitre d’Hotel. 
Chef d'Office. 
Cuisinier. 

Idem. 


2 Femmes de Chambre de Madame la Comtesse Bertrand. 
1 Femme de Chambre de Madame la Comtesse de Mon- 
tholon. < 


Suite des personnes qui accompagnent S. M. 

1 Valet de Chambre - du Due de Rovigo. 

1 4o. - - - - du Comte Bertrand. 

1 do. - - - - du Comte de Montholon. 

1 Valet de pied du Comte Bertrand. 

Total 7. 

Recapitulation. 


Generaux 5 

Dames - - 2 

Enfans 4 

Officiers 3 

Service de la Chambre de S. M. - 5 

Livree de S.|M. 3 

Service de la Bouche 4 


Suite des personnes qui accompagnent S. M. 7 


Total 


33 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


55 


La Corvette. 


Officiers. 


Le Lieutenant Colonel 

Resigni. 

Le Lieutenant Colonel 

Schultz. 

Le Capitaine 

Autrie. 

Le Capitaine 

Mesener. 

Le Capitaine 

Prontdowski. 

Le Lieutenant 

Riviere. 

Le Sous Lieutenant 

S te Catherine. 

Suite de S. M. 

Capriani 

Maitre d’Hotel. 

Santini 

Huissier. 

Chauvin 

Id. 

Rousseau - - 

Lampiste. 

Archambaud 

Valet de pied. 

Joseph 

Id. 

Le Charron 

Id. 

Lisiaux 

Garde d’Office. 

Ortini - 

Valet de pied. 

Fumeau 

Idem. 

Recapitulation. 

Officiers 

7 

Suite 

10 

Total 

17 


56 


NARRATIVE OF 


Enclosed was likewise a copy of the well- 
known letter addressed by Buonaparte to His 
Royal Highness the Prince Regent. 

“ Altesse Royal, 

“ En butte aux factions qui divisent mon pays 
et k l’inimitte des plus grandes puissances de 
TEurope, J’ai termini ma carri&re politique, 
et je viens comme Th^mistocle m’asseoir sur 
le foyer du peuple Britannique. Je me mets 
sous la protection de ses loix, que je re¬ 
clame de votre Altesse Royal, comme au 
plus puissant, au plus constant, et au plus 
g£n£reux de mes Ennemis.” 

“ Rochefort, 13 Juillet, J815, 

“ Sign6, Napoleon.” 

TRANSLATION. 

“Rochefort, July 13th, 1815. 
“Your Royal Highness, 

“ A victim to the factions which distract 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


57 


my country, and to the enmity of the great¬ 
est powers of Europe, I have terminated my 
political career, and I come, like Themis- 
tocles, to throw myself upon the hospitality 
of the British people. I put myself under 
the protection of their laws; which I claim 
from your Royal Highness, as the most 
powerful, the most constant, and the most 
generous of my enemies. 

“ Napolp;on.” 

On reading the above, I told Monsieur 
Las Cases that I would receive Buonaparte 
on board, and immediately forward General 
Gourgaud to England by the Slaney, along 
with my despatches to the Admiralty; but 
that he would not be allowed to land until 
permission was received from London, or 
the sanction of the Admiral at the port he 
might arrive at obtained. I assured him, 
however, that the copy of the letter with 
which he was charged would be forwarded 


58 


NARRATIVE OF 


without loss of time, and presented by the 
ministers to his Royal Highness. Count 
Las Cases then asked for paper, that he 
might communicate by letter to Bertrand 
my acquiescence in the proposal he had 
brought, for my receiving, and conveying to 
England, Buonaparte and his suite. 

When General Gourgaud was about to 
write the letter, to prevent any future mis¬ 
understanding, I said, “ Monsieur Las Cases, 
you will recollect that I am not authorized 
to stipulate as to the reception of Buonaparte 
in England, but that he must consider him¬ 
self entirely at the disposal of his Royal 
Highness the Prince Regent.” He answered, 
“I am perfectly aware of that, and have 
already acquainted the Emperor with what 
you said on the subject.” 

It might, perhaps, have been better if this 
declaration had been given in an official 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


59 


written form; and could I have foreseen the 
discussions which afterwards took place, 
and which will appear in the sequel, I un¬ 
doubtedly should have done so; but as I 
repeatedly made it in the presence of wit¬ 
nesses, it did not occur to me as being 
necessary; and how could a stronger proof 
be adduced, that no stipulations were agreed 
to respecting the reception of Buonaparte in 
England, than the fact of their not being 
reduced to writing? which certainly would 
have been the case had any favourable terms 
been demanded on the part of Monsieur Las 
Cases, and agreed to by me. 

The French boat was soon after despatched 
with the letter to Bertrand, in charge of a 
French naval officer, who had attended Las 
Cases on board; and as soon as I had finish¬ 
ed the following despatch to the Secretary 
of the Admiralty, I sent Captain Sartorius, 
of the Slaney, to England, accompanied by 
General Gourgaud. 


60 


NARRATIVE OF 


Extract of a Letter from Captain Maitland, of His Ma¬ 
jesty’s ship Bellerophon, addressed to the Secretary of 
the Admiralty, dated in Basque Roads, 14th July, 1815. 

“ For the information of the Lords Com¬ 
missioners of the Admiralty, I have to ac¬ 
quaint you that the Count Las Cases and 
General Lallemand this day came on board 
His Majesty’s ship under my command, 
with a proposal from Count Bertrand for me 
to receive on board Napoleon Buonaparte, 
for the purpose of throwing himself on the 
generosity of the Prince Regent. Conceiv¬ 
ing myself authorized by their Lordships’ 
secret order, I have acceded to the proposal, 
and he is to embark on board this ship to¬ 
morrow morning. That no misunderstanding 
might arise, I have explicitly and clearly 
explained to Count Las Cases, that I have 
no authority whatever for granting terms of 
any sort, but that all I can do is to carry 
him and his suite to England, to be received 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. G1 

in such manner as his Royal Highness may 
deem expedient. 

“ At Napoleon Buonaparte’s request, and 
that their Lordships may be in possession of 
the transaction at as early a period as pos¬ 
sible, I despatch the Slaney (with General 
Gourgaud, his Aid de Camp), directing 
Captain Sartorius to put into the nearest 
port, and forward this letter by his first 
Lieutenant, and shall in compliance with 
their Lordships’ orders proceed to Torbay, 
to await such directions as the Admiralty 
may think proper to give. 

“ Enclosed, I transmit a copy of the letter 
with which General Gourgaud is charged, to 
his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and 
request that you will acquaint their Lord- 
ships, that the General informs me, he is 
entrusted with further particulars, which 
he is anxious to communicate to his Royal 
Highness.” 


62 


NARRATIVE OF 


When these gentlemen had left the ship, 
as well as the Saales barge, I said to Mon¬ 
sieur Las Cases, I propose dividing the after¬ 
cabin in two, that the ladies may have the 
use of one part of it. “ If you allow me to 
give an opinion,” said he, “ the Emperor will 
be better pleased to have the whole of the 
after-cabin to himself, as he is fond of walk¬ 
ing about, and will by that means be able 
to take more exercise.” I answered, “ As it 
is my wish to treat him with every possible 
consideration while he is on board the ship 
I command, I shall make any arrangement 
you think will be most agreeable to him.” 

This is the only conversation that ever 
passed on the subject of the cabin ; and I 
am the more particular in stating it, as Buo¬ 
naparte has been described, in some of the 
public Journals, as having taken possession 
of it in a most brutal way, saying, “ Tout 
ou rien pour moiall or nothing for me. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


63 


I here therefore, once for all, beg to state 
most distinctly, that, from the time of his 
coming on board my ship, to the period of 
his quitting her, his conduct was invariably 
that of a gentleman ; and in no one instance 
do I recollect him to have made use of a 
rude expression, or to have been guilty of 
any kind of ill-breeding. 

As the ship had for some time been kept 
clear for action, with all the bulkheads 
down, it became necessary to prepare for 
the reception of so many guests, by putting 
the cabins up again: in consequence of 
making the requisite arrangements, it was 
past one o’clock in the morning before I 
could get to bed. About ten at night, the 
officer of the watch informed me that a boat 
from the shore had asked permission to come 
alongside. A man being allowed to come on 
board from her; “I am sent off from Ro¬ 
chelle,” said he, “ to inform you that Buo- 


64 


NARRATIVE OF 


naparte this morning passed that town in 
a chasse mar6e, with another in company, 
for the purpose of escaping to sea by the 
Pertuis Breton: he is now in that passage, 
and means to set sail this night.” I told 
him, “ that I doubted his information, hav¬ 
ing at that moment one of his attendants on 
board, who had come with a proposal for 
me to receive him into the ship. I then 
asked him how he came by his intelligence ? 
He answered, “ The vessels passed close to 
a boat that I was in ; and I saw a man wrapt 
up in a sailor’s great coat, whom one of the 
people with me asserted to be him: for my 
part, I am not acquainted with his appear¬ 
ance, never having seen him ; but when the 
owner of the vessels attempted to go on 
board of them, he was kept off, and told 
that they were required for two or three 
days, when they would be restored with 
ample payment.” He told his story so cir¬ 
cumstantially, and with such confidence, that 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


65 


I feared there must be grounds for what he 
stated ; and the anxiety of my situation 
may be easily conceived, when it is recol¬ 
lected that I had sent off a ship to England 
with despatches, announcing the intention 
of Buonaparte to embark the following 
morning in the Bellerophon. After a little 
consideration, I determined to inform Las 
Cases abruptly of the intelligence I had 
received, and endeavour to judge by the 
effect it had on his countenance, whether 
there was any truth in the report or not. 
I accordingly went into the cabin and did 
so ; he seemed perfectly calm and collected, 
saying, “ Pray at what hour does your in¬ 
formant state the Emperor to have passed 
Rochelle ?” “ At ten A. M.” “ Then I can 
safely assert, on my honour, that he was not 
in either of those vessels. I left him at half 
past five this evening, when it was his full 
intention to come on board this ship to¬ 
morrow morning; what he may have done 


F 


66 


NARRATIVE OF 


since that hour, I cannot be responsible for.” 
I answered, “ As you give your word of 
honour that Buonaparte had not left Isle 
d’Aix when you quitted it, I shall trust to 
what you say, and take no steps in conse¬ 
quence of the information that has been 
brought to me, but conclude it has origi¬ 
nated in some mistake.” 

About three in the morning, the officer of 
the watch awoke me, and said that another 
boat wished to come alongside. I rose and 
went upon deck immediately, and found 
that she brought the same intelligence from 
another quarter; and they both eventually 
proved correct, to a certain extent: for two 
chasse-mar^es, as I was afterwards inform¬ 
ed, had been prepared, manned, and officered 
from the frigates, to be used as a last re¬ 
source to attempt an escape in, in the event 
of Las Cases’ mission to the Bellerophon 
not being successful; and they had actually 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


67 


passed Rochelle, in their way to Pointeau 
d’Aguillon, at the hour specified, and were 
there to await his joining them should it 
prove necessary.* 

i 

After'I had determined to abide by Las 
Cases’ insurance, that Buonaparte had not 
quitted Isle d’Aix, I enquired of the person 
who brought off the information in the eve¬ 
ning, “ What was the state of Rochelle, and 
whether I might with safety send a boat 

Chasse-Marees are small decked vessels, rigged as 
luggers; they are generally from twenty to thirty-five tons 
burthen, and are used almost exclusively for the coasting 
trade of France. Though there is no doubt that, during 
the summer months, a vessel of this description might 
succeed in making the voyage to America; yet if we take 
into consideration the indolent habits that Buonaparte had 
of late years given way to; the very small space for the 
accommodation of himself and suite, and for the stowage of 
provisions, water, and other necessaries; that there was no 
friendly port he could have touched at, to gain supplies;— 
the utter impracticability of his reaching his destination in 
a vessel of that description, even if he had eluded the vigi¬ 
lance of our cruisers, will at once be evident to every one. 

F 2 


G8 


NARRATIVE OF 


there to purchase refreshments?” as the 
white flag was then hoisted all over the 
town ; he said, “ he would not recommend 
it, as, though the towns-people were well 
inclined towards the Bourbon family, the 
garrison, consisting of four thousand men, 
were all attached to Buonaparte; but if he 
were once on board the ship, there would 
be no risk in doing so, as their fear of his 
meeting with bad treatment would keep 
the soldiers in awe.” 

At break of day, on the 15 th of July, 1815 , 
l’Epervier French brig of war was discovered 
under sail, standing out towards the ship, 
with a flag of truce up ; and at the same time 
the Superb, bearing Sir Henry Hotham’s flag, 
was seen in the offing. By half-past five 
the ebb-tide failed, the wind was blowing 
right in, and the brig, which was within a 
mile of us, made no further progress; while 
the Superb was advancing with the wind and 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


69 


tide in her favour. Thus situated, and being 
most anxious to terminate the affair I had 
brought so near a conclusion, previous to the 
Admiral’s arrival, I sent off Mr. Mott, the 
First Lieutenant, in the barge, who returned 
soon after six o’clock, bringing Napoleon 
with him. 

On coming on board the Bellerophon, he 
was received without any of the honours 
generally paid to persons of high rank; the 
guard was drawn out on the break of the 
poop, but did not present arms. His Ma¬ 
jesty’s Government had merely given direc¬ 
tions, in the event of his being captured, for 
his being removed into any one of his Ma¬ 
jesty’s ships that might fall in with him; but 
no instructions had been given as to the light 
in which he was to be viewed. As it is not cus¬ 
tomary, however, on board a British ship of 
war, to pay any such honours before the co¬ 
lours are hoisted at eight o’clock in the 


70 


NARRATIVE OF 


morning, or after sunset, I made the early 
hour an excuse for withholding them upon 
this occasion, 

Buonaparte’s dress was an olive-coloured 
great coat over a green uniform, with scarlet 
cape and cuffs, green lapels turned back 
and edged with scarlet, skirts hooked back 
with bugle horns embroidered in gold ; plain 
sugar-loaf buttons and gold epaulettes; being 
the uniform of the Chasseur a Cheval of the 
Imperial Guard. He wore the star, or grand 
cross of the Legion of Honour, and the small 
cross of that order; the Iron Crown; and the 
Union, appended to the button-hole of his 
left lapel. He had on a small cocked hat, 
with a tri-coloured cockade; plain gold- 
hilted sword, military boots, and white 
waistcoat and breeches. The following day 
he appeared in shoes, with gold buckles, and 
silk stockings—the dress he always wore 
afterwards, while with me. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


71 


On leaving the Epervier, he was cheered 
by her ship’s company as long as the boat 
was within hearing ; and Mr. Mott informed 
me that most of the officers and men had 
tears in their eyes. 

General Bertrand came first up the ship’s 
side, and said to me, “ The Emperor is in 
the boat.” He then ascended, and, when he 
came on the quarter-deck, pulled off his hat, 
and, addressing me in a firm tone of voice, 
said, “ I am come to throw myself on the 
protection of your Prince and laws.” When 
I showed him into the cabin, he looked 
round and said, “ Une belle chambre,” “ This 
is a handsome cabin.” I answered, “ Such 
as it is. Sir, it is at your service while you 
remain on board the ship I command.” He 
then looked at a portrait that was hanging 
up, and said, “ Qui est cette jeune personne?’* 
“ Who is that young lady?” “ My wife,” I 
replied. “ Ah! elle est tr£s jeune et tres 


72 


NARRATIVE OF 


jolie,” “ Ah! she is both young and pretty 
He then asked what countrywoman she was, 
begged to know if I had any children, and 
put a number of questions respecting my 
country, and the service I had seen. He 
next requested I would send for the officers, 
and introduce them to him: which was done 
according to their rank. He asked several 
questions of each, as to the place of his birth, 
the situation he held in the ship, the length 
of time he had served, and the actions he 
had been in. He then expressed a desire to 
go round the ship; but, as the men had not 
done cleaning, I told him it was customary 
to clean the lower decks immediately after 

* I have been induced to insert Buonaparte’s observa¬ 
tion on Mrs. M/s portrait, as well as one he made on 
seeing her alongside of the Bellerophon in Plymouth 
Sound, as they show, in a strong point of view, a peculiar 
trait in his character; that of making a favourable impres¬ 
sion on those with whom he conversed, by seizing every 
opportunity of saying what he considered would be pleas¬ 
ing and flattering to their feelings. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


73 


their breakfast, that they were then so em¬ 
ployed, and, if he would defer visiting the 
ship until they had finished, he would see 
her to more advantage. 

At this time I proposed to him to allow 
me to address him in English, as I had heard 
he understood that language, and I had con¬ 
siderable difficulty in expressing myself in 
French. He replied in French, “ The thing is 
impossible; I hardly understand a word of 
your language:” and from the observations I 
had an opportunity of making afterwards, 
I am satisfied he made a correct statement, 
as, on looking into books or newspapers, he 
frequently asked the meaning of the most 
common word. He spoke his own language 
with a rapidity that at first made it difficult 
to follow him ; and it was several days before 
I,got so far accustomed to his manner of 
speaking, as to comprehend his meaning im¬ 
mediately. 


74 


NARRATIVE OF 


In about a quarter of an hour, he again 
intimated a desire to go round the ship; and 
although I told him he would find the men 
rubbing and scouring, he persisted in his 
wish of seeing her in the state she then was. 
He accordingly went over all her decks, 
asking me many questions; more particu¬ 
larly about any thing that appeared to him 
different from what he had been accustomed 
to see in French ships of war. He seemed 
most struck with the cleanliness and neatness 
of the men, saying “ that our seamen were 
surely a different class of people from the 
French; and that he thought it was owing to 
them we were always victorious at sea.” 

I answered, “ I must beg leave to differ with 
you: I do not wish to take from the merit 
of our men; but my own opinion is, that 
perhaps we owe our advantage to the 
superior experience of the officers; and I 
believe the French seamen, if taken as much 
pains with, would look as well as ours. As 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


75 


British ships of war are constantly at sea, 
the officers have nothing to divert their 
attention from them and their men; and in 
consequence, not only is their appearance 
more attended to, but they are much better 
trained to the service they have to perform.” 

“ I believe you are right,” said he. He 
then went on to talk of several naval actions ; 
adding, “ Your laws are either more severe, 
or better administered, than ours; there are 
many instances of French officers having 
conducted themselves ill in battle, without 
my being able to punish them as they de¬ 
served among others, he mentioned the 
names of two naval officers; and speaking of 
one of them, said, “ He ought to have 
suffered death, and I did all I could to bring 
it about, but he was tried by a French naval 
court-martial, which only dismissed him the 
service.” I observed, “ The laws appear 
sometimes to be administered with more 


76 


NARRATIVE OF 


than sufficient severity. I commanded a 
frigate in the affair of Basque Roads; and in 
my opinion, the sentence of death on the 
Captain of the Calcutta was unjust: he could 
do no more to save his ship, and she was 
defended better and longer than any one 
there.” He answered, “ You are not aware 
of the circumstances that occasioned his 
condemnation; he was the first man to quit 
his ship, which was fought some time by her 
officers and crew after he had left her.” 

He next said, “ I can see no sufficient 
reason why your ships should beat the 
French with so much ease. The finest men 
of war in your service are French ; a French 
ship is heavier in every respect than one of 
yours, she carries more guns, those guns of 
a larger calibre, and has a great many more 
men.’’ I replied, “ I have already accounted 
for it to you, in the superior experience of 
our men and officers.” “ I understand,” said' 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


77 


he, “from some Frenchmen who were on 
board your ship for several days,* that you 
take great pains in exercising your guns, 
and training your men to fire at a mark.” 
I answered, “ I did so, because I considered 
it of the greatest importanceand I added, 
“ that if the frigates had attempted to put to 
sea, he would probably have had an oppor¬ 
tunity of seeing the effect of it.” He asked 
me “ if I thought two frigates, with four- 
and-twenty pounders on their main decks, )' 
were a match for a seventy-four gun ship; 
and whether it was my opinion, if he had 
attempted to force a passage in the ships at 
Isle d’Aix, it would have been attended with 

* They were part of the officers and crew of the TEneas 
store-ship, mentioned as having been detained on the 18th 
of June, who were on board the Bellerophon about a week, 
and were landed at Isle d’Aix, in a chasse maree, a few 
days before Buonaparte’s arrival there. 

t I was afterwards told, that one of the frigates, at Isle 
d’Aix, had changed her eighteen pounders for twenty- 
fours. 


f 


78 


NARRATIVE OF 


success.” I replied, “ that the fire of a two- 
deck ship was so much more compact, and 
carried such an immense weight of iron, in 
proportion to that of a frigate, and there 
was so much difficulty in bringing two or 
three ships to act with effect at the same 
time upon one, that I scarcely considered 
three frigates a match for one line-of-battle 
ship;—that, with respect to forcing a passage 
past the Bellerophon, it must have depended 
greatly on accident, but the chances were 
much against it; as the frigates would have 
had to beat out against the wind for three or 
four leagues, though a narrow passage, ex¬ 
posed to the fire of a seventy-four gun ship, 
which, from being to windward, would have 
had the power of taking the position most 
advantageous for herself.” He then said, 
reverting to what had passed before about 
firing at marks, “ You have a great advan¬ 
tage over France in your finances: I have 
long wished to introduce the use of powder 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


79 


and shot in exercise; but the expense was 
too great for the country to bear/’ He ex¬ 
amined the sights on the guns, and approved 
of them highly; asked the weight of metal 
on the different decks, disapproving of the 
mixture of different calibres on the quarter¬ 
deck and forecastle. I told him the long 
nines were placed in the way of the rigging, 
that they might carry the fire from the 
explosion clear of it, which a carronade 
would not do : he answered, “ That may be 
necessary, but it must be attended with in- 
convenience.” His enquiries were generally 
much to the purpose, and showed that he 
had given naval matters a good deal of con¬ 
sideration. 

On seeing the additional supply of wads 
for each deck made up along with the shot- 
boxes, in the form of sophas, with neat 
canvass covers, he observed, “ The French 
ships of war have all the preparations for 


80 


NARRATIVE OF 


action that you have, but they have not 
the way of combining appearance with 
utility.” 

We had breakfast about nine o’clock, in 
the English style, consisting of tea, coffee, 
cold meat,&c. He did not eat much, or seeifi 
to relish it; and when, on enquiry, I found 
he was accustomed to have a hot meal in 
the morning, I immediately ordered my 
steward to allow his Maltre d’Hotel to give 
directions, that he might invariably be 
served in the manner he had been used to ; 
and after that we always lived in the French 
fashion, as far as I could effect that object. 

During breakfast he asked many ques¬ 
tions about English customs, saying, “ I 
must now learn to conform myself to them, 
as I shall probably pass the remainder of 
my life in England.” 


CAPTATN MAITLAND. 


81 


The Superb, as I before observed, had 
been seen in the offing early in the morning, 
and was now approaching with a light breeze: 
he asked two or three times how soon she 
would anchor, seemed very anxious to know 
whether the Admiral would approve of my 
having received him; and when I went to 
wait on Sir Henry Hotham, requested I 
would say he was desirous of seeing him. 

The Superb anchored about half past ten, 
and I immediately went on board, and gave 
the Admiral an account of all that had 
occurred, adding, “ I trust I have done 
right, and that the Government will approve 
of my conduct, as I considered it of much 
importance to prevent Buonaparte’s escape 
to America, and to get possession of his per¬ 
son.” Sir Henry Hotham said / 4 Getting hold 
of him on any terms would have been of the 
greatest consequence ; but as you have en¬ 
tered into no conditions whatever, there can- 


G 


82 


NARRATIVE OF 


not be a doubt that you will obtain the ap¬ 
probation of his Majesty’s Government.” 

He then said, “ How do you feel as to 
keeping him ? would you like to part with 
him ?” “ Certainly not,” was my answer: 

“ as I have had all the anxiety and respon¬ 
sibility of conducting this matter to an 
issue, I am of course desirous of taking him 
to England; but, as I do not wish to keep 
him, or any man, in my ship against his 
will, if he desires to remove into another, 
I shall certainly not object.” 

1 then delivered Buonaparte’s message, 
that he was desirous of receiving a visit 
from the Admiral, who said he would wait 
upon him with much pleasure. 

I soon after returned to the Bellerophon, 
and told Buonaparte that the Admiral meant 
to wait on him; upon which he desired Count 
Bertrand to go and pay his respects to Sir 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


83 


Henry. I accompanied him, and while the 
Admiral was preparing for his visit, Captain 
Senhouse attended General Bertrand through 
the ship. 

In the afternoon. Sir Henry Hotham, 
accompanied by Captain Senhouse, and 
Mr. Irving, his secretary, came on board 
the Bellerophon. They were introduced to 
Buonaparte by General Bertrand, in the 
after-cabin, where he had a good deal of 
conversation with them : he showed his por¬ 
table library, which was laid out in small 
travelling cases round the cabin ; asked 
various questions, principally relative to the 
discipline and regulation of our ships of 
war, and finally invited them all to remain 
to dinner. 

Dinner was served about five o’ clock upon 
Buonaparte’s plate. This was arranged by 
his Maltre d’Hotel, whom I had told to re- 
g 2 


84 


NARRATIVE OF 


gulate every thing in the manner most likely 
to be agreeable to his master. 

When dinner was announced, Buonaparte, 
viewing himself as a Royal personage, which 
he continued to do while on board the Bel- 
lerophon, and which, under the circumstan¬ 
ces, 1 considered it would have been both 
ungracious and uncalled for in me to have 
disputed, led the way into the dining-room. 
He seated himself in the centre at one side 
of the table, requesting Sir Henry Hotham 
to sit at his right hand, and Madame Ber¬ 
trand on his left. For that day I sat as usual 
at the head of the table, but on the following 
day, and every other, whilst Buonaparte re¬ 
mained on board, I sat by his request at his 
right hand, and General Bertrand took the 
top. Two of the ward-room officers dined 
daily at the table, by invitation from Buona¬ 
parte, conveyed through Count Bertrand. 


He conversed a great deal, and showed no 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


85 


depression of spirits : among other things, he 
asked me where I was born. I told him in 
Scotland. “ Have you any property there ?” 
said he. “ No, I am a younger brother, and 
they do not bestow much on people of that 
description in Scotland.” Is your elder bro¬ 
ther a Lord ?” “No, Lord Lauderdale is 
the head of our family.” “ Ah! you are a 
relation of Lord Lauderdale’s! he is an ac¬ 
quaintance of mine, he was sent Ambassador 
from your King to me, when Mr. Fox was 
Prime Minister : had Mr. Fox lived, it never 
would have come to this/but his death put 
an end to all hopes of peace. Milord Lau¬ 
derdale est un bon gar^on,” adding, “ I think 
you resemble him a little, though he is dark 
and you are fair.” 

When dinner was over, a cup of strong- 
coffee was handed round ; he then rose and 
went into the after-cabin, asking the Admi¬ 
ral and all the party to accompany him, the 
ladies among the rest. This was the only 


8 G 


NARRATIVE OF 


time I ever saw them in the apartment in 
which he slept. 

After some conversation, he said, in a 
cheerful and playful way, that he would show 
us his camp bed; and sent for Marchand, 
his premier valet de chambre, who received 
his order, and soon returned with two small 
packages in leather cases ; one of which con¬ 
tained the bedstead, which was composed 
of steel, and, when packed up, was not above 
two feet long, and eighteen inches in circum¬ 
ference ; the other contained the mattress 
and curtains, the latter of green silk. In three 
minutes the whole was put together, and 
formed a very elegant small bed, about thirty 
inches wide. 

He then went out, and walked the quarter¬ 
deck for some time, and retired to his cabin 
about half-past seven o’clock. Soon after, 
when the Admiral was going to return to his 
ship, he proposed to Bertrand to take leave 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 87 

of him. He went into the cabin, but returned 
immediately with an apology, saying he was 
undressed, and going to bed. 

In the course of the afternoon, the Admiral 
invited Buonaparte, with the ladies and all 
his principal officers, to breakfast, the follow¬ 
ing day: which invitation was accepted, 
apparently, with much satisfaction. 

When I went on deck, early the next 
morning, (the 16th of July) I observed that 
the Superb had the tompions out of her guns, 
and the man ropes on her yards, as if for the 
purpose of saluting and manning ships; and 
as I had received Buonaparte without even 
the guard presenting arms, I felt that he 
might conceive I had intentionally treated 
him with disrespect. I therefore sent the 
officer of the watch with my compliments to 
Sir Henry Hotham, and begged to know if 
it was his intention to salute Buonaparte on 
his going on board, and to receive him with 


88 


NARRATIVE OF 


manned yards ; and, if so, whether I was to 
do the same, on his quitting the Bellerophon. 
He sent for answer, that it was not his in¬ 
tention to salute, but he meant to man ship ; 
that I was not to do so on his quitting the 
Bellerophon, but was at liberty to man yards 
on his return. I likewise received directions 
from the Admiral to hoist a signal, when the 
boat with his visitors was ready to leave the 
ship, that he might have time to make the 
necessary preparations. 

About ten A. M. the barge was manned, 
and a captain’s guard turned out. When 
Buonaparte came on deck, he looked at the 
marines, who were generally fine-looking 
young men, with much satisfaction; went 
through their ranks, inspected their arms, 
and admired their appearance, saying to 
Bertrand, “ How much might be done with 
a hundred thousand such soldiers as these.” 
He asked which had been longest in the 
corps; went up and spoke to him. His 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


89 


questions were put in French, which I inter¬ 
preted, as well as the man’s answers. He 
enquired how many years he had served ; on 
being told upwards of ten’ he turned to me 
and said, “ Is it not customary in your ser¬ 
vice, to give a man who has been in it so long 
some mark of distinction ?” He was inform¬ 
ed that the person in question had been a 
sergeant, but was reduced to the ranks for 
some misconduct. He then put the guard 
through part of their exercise, whilst I 
interpreted to the Captain of Marines, who 
did not understand French, the manoeuvres 
he wished to have performed. He made 
some remarks upon the difference of the 
charge with the bayonet between our troops 
and the French; and found fault with our 
method of fixing the bayonet to the mus- 
quet, as being more easy to twist off, if 
seized by an enemy when in the act of 
charging. 


On getting into the boat, he looked at the 


90 


NARRATIVE OF 


barge’s crew, and said, “ What a very fine 
set of men you have got!” He then turned 
to Las Cases, who had come on board the 
ship in plain clothes, but now appeared in a 
naval uniform, and said jocularly, “ Com¬ 
ment, Las Cases, vous £tes militaire?” “What, 
Las Cases, are you a military man ? I have 
never till now seen you in uniform.” He 
answered, “ Please your Majesty, before 
the revolution I was a lieutenant in the 
navy; and as I think an uniform carries more 
consideration with it in a foreign country, I 
have adopted it.” 

His attention was now drawn to the men 
on the Superb’s yards, as well as to the ap¬ 
pearance of the ship, about which he made 
some observations, and asked several ques¬ 
tions ; among others, whether she was French 
or English ; what her age was; the number 
of guns she carried, and the weight of metal 
on each deck. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


91 


On going along-side, General Bertrand 
went up and announced to the Admiral, that 
the Emperor, for they always gave him that 
title, was in the boat. He then went up, and 
was received by Sir Henry Hotham on the 
quarter-deck, where a captain's guard was 
turned out to him. He was immediately 
shown into the cabin, and, after looking 
round him, requested to have the officers 
presented, which was done; when he asked 
.nearly the same questions of each, that he 
had put to those of the Bellerophon the day 
before. He then expressed a wish to go 
through the ship; and did so, accompanied 
by several of his own suite, the Admiral, 
Captain Senhouse, and myself. The men 
were drawn up at divisions, and every thing 
was in the nicest order. He appeared much 
pleased with all he saw, and drew many 
comparisons between French and English 
ships of war. On going through the wings 
and store-rooms, he said to General Savary, 


92 


NARRATIVE OF 


“ Our ships have nothing of this sort:” who 
answered, “ All the new ones, built at 
Antwerp, were constructed on this plan.” 
When he returned to the quarter-deck, he 
questioned the Admiral and myself very 
minutely, about the clothing and victualling 
of the seamen. It was then, on being told 
that all that department was under the 
charge of the purser, he said in a facetious 
way, “ Je crois que c’est quelquefois cfoez 
vous, comme chez nous, le commissaire est 
un peu coquin.” “ I believe it happens 
sometimes with you, as it does with us, that 
the purser is a little of a rogue.” This was 
addressed to the Admiral and me, with 
whom he was conversing, and not to the 
people, as has been represented; nor was, 
there a man that could have understood it, 
as it was spoken in French, and not within 
their hearing. He asked to see the Chaplain, 
put a few questions to him as to the number 
of Catholics and foreigners in the ship, and 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 93 

whether any of them spoke the French lan¬ 
guage. A Guernsey man was pointed out 
to him, but he had no conversation with 
him. 

He was then shown into the cabin, where 
breakfast was prepared : during which meal 
he talked a good deal, but ate little, the 
breakfast being served in the English man¬ 
ner. I observed, during the whole time 
of breakfast, that Colonel Planat, who was 
much attached to him, and of whom Buo¬ 
naparte always expressed himself in terms 
of affection, had tears running down his 
cheeks, and seemed greatly distressed at 
the situation of his master. And, from the 
opportunities I afterwards had of observing 
this young man’s character, I feel convinced 
he had a strong personal attachment to 
Buonaparte;—and this, indeed, as far as I 
could judge, was the case also with all his 
other attendants, without exception. 


94 


NARRATIVE OF 


On rising from the breakfast-table, the 
whole party went into the after-cabin, 
where a discussion took place about Buo¬ 
naparte’s horses and carriages, which had 
been left at Rochefort, and which he was 
desirous of having forwarded to England. 
1 had formerly agreed, in the event of their 
arriving, to receive two carriages, and five 
or six horses, as many as the ship could 
conveniently stow; but as they had not 
come, the Admiral now consented to give 
a passport for a vessel to transport the 
whole of them, consisting of six carriages 
and forty-five horses: which was accord¬ 
ingly made out, and forwarded to Monsieur 
Philibert, the senior naval officer at Isle 
d’Aix, but I believe it was never acted upon. 

We all returned to the Bellerophon about 
noon, when the ships present manned their 
yards, the boat was immediately hoisted 
in, and the ship got under weigh, in pur- 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


95 


suance of orders from the Admiral, of which 
the following is an extract. 


Extract of an Order from Rear Admiral Sir Henry Ho- 
tham, K. C. B., addressed to Captain Maitland of 
H. M. S. Bellerophon, dated Superb, in Basque Roads, 
July 15th, 1815. 

“ You are hereby required and directed 
to take the Myrmidon under your orders, 
and, putting on board her such persons com¬ 
posing a part of the suite of Napoleon Buo¬ 
naparte as cannot be conveyed in the Bel- 
lerophon, you are to put to sea in H. M. S. 
under your command, in company with 
the Myrmidon, and make the best of your 
way with Napoleon Buonaparte and his 
suite to Torbay, and there landing the 
officer of the ship bearing my dag, whom 
I have charged with a despatch address¬ 
ed to the Secretary of the Admiralty, as 
well as an officer of the ship you com¬ 
mand, for the purpose of proceeding express 


96 


NARRATIVE OF 


to Plymouth with the despatch you will 
herewith receive, addressed to Admiral Lord 
Keith, and a copy of these instructions 
(which you will transmit to his Lordship,) 
await orders from the Lords Commissioners 
of the Admiralty, or his Lordship, for your 
further proceedings.” 

During the time we were heaving the an¬ 
chor up, and setting the sails, Buonaparte 
remained on the break of the poop; and was 
very inquisitive about what was going on. 
He observed, “ Your method of performing 
this manoeuvre is quite different from the 
French ; and added, “What I admire most 
in your ship, is the extreme silence and 
orderly conduct of your men on board a 
French ship, every one calls and gives or¬ 
ders, and they gabble like so many geese.” 
Previous to his quitting the Bellerophon he 
made the same remark, saying, “ There has 
been less noise in this ship, where there 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


97 


are six hundred men, during the whole of the 
time I have been in her, than there was on 
board the Epervier, with only one hundred, 
in the passage from Isle d’Aix to Basque 
Roads.” 

Soon after the ship was under weigh, the 
Mouche joined, with three or four sheep, a 
quantity of vegetables, and other refresh¬ 
ments,—a present from the French Commo¬ 
dore to Buonaparte. After receiving them on 
board, we made sail, accompanied by the 
Myrmidon, for England. 

In working out, we passed within about a 
cable’s length of the Superb. He asked me 
if I considered that was near enough for a 
naval engagement: I answered, that half the 
distance, or even less, would suit much 
better; as it was a maxim in our navy not 
to be further from our enemy than to give 
H 


98 


NARRATIVE OF 


room for working the yards, and manoeu¬ 
vring the ship. 

He remained upon deck all the time the 
ship was beating out of the Pertuis d’An- 
tioche. Having cleared the Chasseron shoal 
about six P. M., dinner was served. He 
conversed a great deal at table, and seemed 
in very good spirits; told several anecdotes 
of himself; among others, one relating to Sir 
Sydney Smith. Knowing that I had served 
under that officer on the coast of Syria, he 
turned to me and said, “Did Sir Sydney 
Smith ever tell you the cause of his quarrel 
with me ?” I answered he had not. “ Then,” 
said he, “I will.—When the French army 
was before St. Jean d’Acre, he had a paper 
privately distributed among the officers and 
soldiers, tending to induce them to revolt 
and quit me ; on which I issued a proclama¬ 
tion, denouncing the English commanding- 
officer as a madman, and prohibiting all in- 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


99 


tercourse with him. This nettled Sir Syd¬ 
ney so much, that he sent me a challenge to 
meet him in single combat on the beach at 
Caiffa. My reply was, that when Marlbo¬ 
rough appeared for that purpose, I should 
be at his service; but I had other duties to 
fulfil besides fighting a duel with an English 
commodore.” He pursued the subject of 
Syria, and said, patting me (who was sitting 
next him) on the head ; “ If it had not been 
for you English, I should have been Emperor 
of the East; but wherever there is water to 
float a ship, we are sure to find you in our 
way.” 

During the 17th and 18th of July, the 
weather was very fine, and nothing of note 
occurred. Several strange vessels were seen, 
about which Buonaparte and his attendants 
were very inquisitive, in order, I presume, 
that they might judge whether they would 
probably have escaped or not, had they put 
h 2 


100 


NAUKAT1VE OF 


to sea. The only ship of war fallen in with 
on those days was the Bacchus sloop, which 
I pointed out; and at the same time informed 
him, that we had several frigates cruising 
in this position, for the purpose of intercept¬ 
ing him, had he got past the ships stationed 
close in with the land. This, as it afterwards 
appeared, was not the case : the Endymion 
having gone into the Gironde, the Liffey 
having sprung her bowsprit and returned to 
England, and the others, from various causes, 
having quitted the station ; so that, had he 
passed the squadron off Rochefort, there can 
be little doubt he would have made his 
voyage in safety to America. 

About this time, Buonaparte amused him¬ 
self by playing at cards after breakfast: the 
game was vingt-un , in which all the party 
joined, except myself. He proposed that I 
should play with them, but I told him I had 
no money, making it a rule to leave it all 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


101 


with my wife before 1 went to sea: on which 
he laughed, and good-humouredly offered to 
lend me some, and trust me until we arrived 
in England : I, however, declined his offer, 
having the numerous duties of the ship to 
attend to. 

As my despatch of the 14th instant to the 
Secretary of the Admiralty had been very 
short, and written in great haste,—being de¬ 
sirous that his Majesty’s Ministers should 
be made acquainted with the important 
arrangements agreed upon, as early as pos¬ 
sible,—I considered it right to make a more 
detailed report to the Commander in Chief; 
and therefore wrote a despatch to Lord 
Keith, of which the following are extracts, 
intending to send it by the officer who should 
announce to him the Bellerophon’s arrival 
in Torbay. 


102 


NARK ATI VE OF 


Extract of a Letter from Captain Maitland, addressed to 

Admiral Viscount Keith, G.C. B. dated on board H. M. 

Ship Bellerophon, at sea, July 18th, 1815. 

“ Having received directions from Sir 
Henry Hotham to forward the accompany¬ 
ing despatch to your Lordship by an officer, 
I avail myself of the opportunity to explain 
the circumstances under which I was placed 
when induced to receive Napoleon Buona¬ 
parte into the ship I command. 

“ After the first communication was made 
to me by Count Bertrand (a copy of which, 
with my answer, has been forwarded to 
your Lordship by Sir Henry Hotham) that 
Buonaparte was at Isle d’Aix, and actually 
embarked on board the frigates for the pur¬ 
pose of proceeding to the United States 
of America, my duty became peculiarly 
harassing and anxious, owing to the nu¬ 
merous reports, that were daily brought from 
all quarters, of his intention to escape in 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


103 


vessels of various descriptions, and from 
different situations on the coast, of which 
the limited means I possessed, together 
with the length of time requisite to com¬ 
municate with Sir Henry Hotham at Qui- 
beron Bay, rendered the success at least 
possible, and even probable. Thus situated, 
the enemy having two frigates and a brig, 
while the force under my command con¬ 
sisted of the Bellerophon and Slaney, (hav¬ 
ing detached the Myrmidon to reinforce 
the Daphne off the Mamusson passage, 
where the force was considerably superior 
to her, and whence one of the reports 
stated Buonaparte meant to sail,) another 
flag of truce was sent out, for the ostensible 
reason of enquiring whether I had received 
an answer to the former, but I soon as¬ 
certained the real one to be a proposal 
from Buonaparte to embark for England in 
this ship. 


104 


NARRATIVE OF 


“ Taking into consideration all the circum¬ 
stances of the probability of the escape being 
effected, if the trial was made either in the 
frigates, or clandestinely in a small vessel, 
as, had this ship been disabled in action, there 
was no other with me that could produce any 
effect on a frigate, and from the experience I 
have had in blockading the ports of the bay, 
knowing the impossibility of preventing small 
vessels from getting to sea, and looking upon 
it as of the greatest importance to get pos¬ 
session of the person of Buonaparte ; I was 
induced, without hesitation, to accede to the 
proposal, as far as taking him on board, and 
proceeding with him to England : but, at the 
same time, stating in the most clear and posi¬ 
tive terms, that I had no authority to make 
any sort of stipulation as to the reception he 
was to meet with, 

“ I am happy to say, that the measures I 
have adopted have met with the approbation 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


105 


of Sir Henry Hotham, and will, I trust and 
hope, receive that of your Lordship, as well 
as of his Majesty’s Government.” 

On the 29th, a conversation took place be¬ 
tween Madame Bertrand and myself, about 
Buonaparte’s voyage to Elba. She asked me 
if I was acquainted with Captain Usher. On 
my answering in the negative, she said, “The 
Emperor is very fond of him: he gave him his 
portrait set with diamonds, and has another 
which he intends for you.” I replied, “ I 
hope not, as I cannot accept of it. Captain 
Usher’s situation and mine were very diffe¬ 
rent, and what might be proper in him would 
not be so in me.” She rejoined, “ If you do 
not accept of it, you will offend him very 
much.” “ If that is the case,” I said, “ I shall 
be obliged to you to take steps to prevent its 
being offered, as I wish to save him the mor¬ 
tification, and myself the pain, of a refusal; 
and I feel it absolutely impossible, situated 


106 


NARRATIVE OE 


as I am, to take a present from him. In re¬ 
ceiving him on board, I had no direct autho¬ 
rity from my Government, and I have yet to 
learn whether my conduct will be approved 
of. Besides, were I to receive a present of 
such value, it might possibly be said, that I 
was actuated by selfish motives; whereas all 
the measures I have taken were dictated 
solely by the desire of serving my country 
to the best of my judgment: if, therefore, I 
am to receive any reward, it must come from 
that quarter.” 

On the 20th of July, early in the morning, 
we spoke the Swiftsure, on her way from 
England to reinforce me in the blockade of 
Rochefort. The astonishment of Captain 
Webley can scarcely be conceived, when, on 
his entering the ship, I said, “ Well, I have 
got him.” Got him ! got whom V 9 “ Why, 
Buonaparte ; the man that has been keeping 
all Europe in a ferment these last twenty 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


107 


years.” “ Is it possible V 9 said he; “ well, 
you are a lucky fellow.” We had some fur¬ 
ther conversation ; but Captain Webley was 
not introduced to Buonaparte, who had not 
then left his cabin ; and as the Swiftsure was 
going to the southward, and I was desirous 
of getting to England as quickly as possible, 
we soon parted company. 

During the 21st and 22d of July, we ex¬ 
changed signals with two or three others of 
our ships, which I took care to explain were 
on the look-out for my guest; and he seemed 
by this time pretty well convinced that an at¬ 
tempt to elude our cruisers would have been 
fruitless. On the latter day, the Prometheus 
showed her number, while we were at din¬ 
ner : when Buonaparte expressed a wish to 
know whether the ships at Brest had hoisted 
the white flag or not. I sent for the officer of 
the watch, and desired him to ask the question 
by telegraph. In a few minutes he returned. 


108 


NARRATIVE OF 


with an answer in the affirmative. Buona¬ 
parte made no remark upon this information; 
but asked, with apparent indifference, how 
the question and answer had been conveyed; 
and when I explained it to him, he approved 
highly of the usefulness of the invention. 

During meals, he always entered very 
freely and familiarly into conversation with 
those about him, addressing himself fre¬ 
quently to Las Cases and me ; asking many 
questions about the manners, customs, and 
laws of the English ; often repeating the ob¬ 
servation he had made on first coming on 
board, that he must gain all the information 
possible on those subjects, and conform him¬ 
self to them, as he should probably end his 
life among that people. Monsieur Las’ 
Cases, it appears, had emigrated from France 
early in the revolution, and remained in 
England until the peace of Amiens, when he 
was allowed to return to his own country. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


109 


Sunday, the 23rd of July, we passed very 
near to Ushant: the day was fine, and 
Buonaparte remained upon deck great part 
of the morning. He cast many a melancholy 
look at the coast of France, but made few ob¬ 
servations on it. He asked several questions 
about the coast of England; whether it was 
safe to approach; its distance, and the part 
we were likely to make. About eight in the 
evening, the high land of Dartmoor was dis¬ 
covered, when I went into the cabin and 
told him of it: I found him in a flannel 
dressing-gown, nearly undressed, and pre¬ 
paring to go to bed. He put on his great¬ 
coat, came out upon deck, and remained 
some time looking at the land; asking its dis¬ 
tance from Torbay, and the probable time of 
our arrival there. 

\ 

At day-break of the 24th of July, we were 
close off Dartmouth. Count Bertrand went 
into the cabin, and informed Buonaparte of 


no 


NARRATIVE OF 


it, who came upon deck about half-past four, 
and remained on the poop until the ship 
anchored in Torbay. He talked with admi¬ 
ration of the boldness of the coast; saying, 
“ You have in that respect a great advantage 
over France, which is surrounded by rocks 
and dangers.” On opening Torbay, he was 
much struck with the beauty of the scenery; 
and exclaimed, “ What a beautiful country! 
it very much resembles the bay of Porto 
Ferrajo, in Elba.” 

The ship was scarcely at anchor, when an 
officer came along-side, bringing an order 
from Lord Keith ; of which I give an extract. 


Extract of an Order from Admiral Viscount Keith, 
G. C. B. addressed to Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. 
Bellerophon, dated Ville de Paris, Hamoaze, 23d July, 
1815. 

“ Captain Sartorius, of His Majesty’s ship 
Slaney, delivered to me last night, at eleven 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


Ill 


o’clock, your despatch of the 14 th instant, 
acquainting me that Buonaparte had pro¬ 
posed to embark on board the ship you 
command ; and that you had acceded there¬ 
to, with the intention of proceeding to 
Torbay, there to wait for further orders. I 
lost no time in forwarding your letter by 
Captain Sartorius to the Lords Commission¬ 
ers of the Admiralty, in order that their 
Lordships might, through him, be acquainted 
with every circumstance that had occurred 
on an occasion of so much importance ; and 
you may expect orders from their Lordships 
for your further guidance. You are to remain 
in Torbay until you receive such orders; and 
in the mean time, in addition to the direc¬ 
tions already in your possession, you are 
most positively ordered to prevent every 
person whatever from coming on board the 
ship you command, except the officers and 
men who compose her crew; nor is any per¬ 
son whatever, whether in His Majesty’s ser- 


112 


NARRATIVE OF 


vice or not, who does not belong to the ship, 
to be suffered to come on board, either for 
the purpose of visiting the officers, or on any 
pretence whatever, without express per¬ 
mission either from the Lords Commission¬ 
ers of the Admiralty, or from me. As I un¬ 
derstand from Captain Sartorius, that Ge¬ 
neral Gourgaud refused to deliver the letter 
with which he was charged for the Prince 
Regent, to any person except his Royal 
Highness, you are to take him out of the 
Slaney, into the ship you command, until 
you receive directions from the Admiralty on 
the subject, and order that ship back to 
Plymouth Sound, when Captain Sartorius 
returns from London.” 

Along with the above order, I received a 
letter from Lord Keith, of which I give some 
extracts. 


tt 


You will perceive by the newspapers, 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


113 


that the intelligence had reached London 
before Captain Sartorius, owing to his long 
passage. I have a letter from Lord Mel¬ 
ville to-day, enforcing in the strongest man¬ 
ner the former orders,—even that no person, 
myself or Sir John Duckworth excepted, 
shall be suffered to come on board the ship, 
till orders are sent from Government; which 
you will be so good as strictly to comply 
with. Let him and his want for nothing; 
and send to me for any thing Brixham can¬ 
not furnish; I will send it to you by a small 
vessel. You may say to Napoleon, that I 
am under the greatest personal obligations 
to him for his attention to my nephew, who 
was taken and brought before him at Belle 
Alliance, and who must have died, if he had 
not ordered a surgeon to dress him immedi¬ 
ately, and sent him to a hut. I am glad it 
fell into your hands at this time, because a 
Frenchman had been sent from Paris on the 
mission, a Monsieur Drigni.” 


i 


1X4 NARRATIVE OF 

Buonaparte recollected the circumstance 
alluded to, and seemed much gratified with 
Lord Keith’s acknowledgments. 

Napoleon and all his attendants were 
very anxious to see as many newspapers 
as possible, but particularly the Courier, 
which they considered the Ministerial paper, 
and most likely to contain the intentions 
of Government respecting them. They re¬ 
ceived little encouragement from any of 
them, but least of all from those which are 
supposed to take the Ministerial side in 
politics, as they not only contained a great 
deal that was personally offensive, but 
stated, in very plain terms, that none of 
the party would be allowed to land in Eng¬ 
land, and that St. Helena was the probable 
place of their ultimate destination. Buona¬ 
parte himself always affected to consider 
this as a mere newspaper report, though 
I believe it gave him a good deal of un¬ 
easiness. His followers received it with 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 115 

much irritation and impatience, frequently 
endeavouring to convince me that our Go¬ 
vernment could have no right to dispose 
of them in that way, and talking to me, 
as if I had been one of his Majesty’s Mi¬ 
nisters, and had influence in determining 
on their future destination. All I could 
say on the subject did not prevent them 
from frequently recurring to it, and appeal- 
ing against the injustice of such a measure. 

This morning General Gourgaud returned 
from the Slaney, which we found lying here, 
not having been permitted to land, and 
having refused to deliver the letter he had 
been charged with for the Prince Regent 
to any person except his Royal Highness 
himself. 

When I was conversing with Madame 
Bertrand, she said, “ Had the Emperor 
gained the battle of Waterloo, he would 

i 2 


116 


NARRATIVE OF 


have been firmly seated on the throne of 
France.” I answered, “ It certainly might 
have protracted his downfall, but, in all 
probability, he would have been overthrown 
at last, as the Russians were fast advancing, 
and he never could have resisted the com¬ 
bined forces of the Allies.” To which she 
replied, “ If your army had been defeated, 
the Russians never would have acted against 
him.” “ That I cannot believe,” I said, “as 
they were using every effort to join and 
support the Allies; and the assertion is ri¬ 
diculous.” “Ah,” said she, “ you may 
laugh at it, and so may other people, nor 
will it, perhaps, now be discovered ; but re¬ 
member what I say, and be assured that 
at some future period it will be proved, 
that it never was Alexander's intention to 
cross the frontiers of France, in opposition 
to him.” 

In the course of the day I received many 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


117 


applications for admittance into the ship: 
among others a note from a lady residing in 
the neighbourhood, accompanied by a basket 
of fruit, requesting a boat might be sent for 
her next morning. 1 returned a civil answer, 
informing her that my instructions would 
not admit of her request being complied 
with : no more fruit was sent from that quar¬ 
ter. Lord Gwydir and Lord Charles Ben- 
tinck also applied for admittance, but with 
no better success. 

No sooner was Buonaparte’s arrival known 
in the neighbourhood, than the ship was sur¬ 
rounded by a crowd of boats, people being- 
drawn from all quarters to see this extraor¬ 
dinary man. He came often upon deck, and 
showed himself at the gangways and stern 
windows, apparently for the purpose of gra¬ 
tifying their curiosity, of which, as he ob¬ 
served to me, the English appeared to have 
a very large portion. 


118 


NARRATIVE OF 


In the evening, the officer who had been 
sent to Plymouth, on the ship’s arrival, with 
despatches for Lord Keith, returned, bring¬ 
ing letters, from which I give the following 
extracts :— 


Extract of a Letter from Admiral Viscount Keith, G. C. B. 
addressed to’ Captain Maitland of H. M. S. Bellero- 
phon, dated Ville de Paris, Hamoaze, July 24, 1815. 


“ The officer of the ship you command 
has just delivered to me your letter of this 
date, reporting your arrival in Torbay, with 
the Bellerophon and Myrmidon, having on 
board Napoleon Buonaparte and his suite. 
I have also received your other letter, ex¬ 
plaining the circumstances under which you 
were placed, when you were induced to 
receive Napoleon on board ; and I shall 
transmit the same to the Lords Commis¬ 
sioners of the Admiralty, in confident ex¬ 
pectation, that his Majesty’s Government 
will fully approve of your conduct.” 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


119 


Extract of a letter from Admiral Viscount Keith, G. C. B. 

addressed to Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. Bellero- 

phon, dated 24th July, 1815. 

“ I take the opportunity of your officer’s 
return, to congratulate you and the nation, 
and to thank you for the perfect manner in 
which you entered into my views on the sub¬ 
ject, and for the management of the blockade, 
about which I was most anxious. It will not 
be long ere you are instructed by the Go¬ 
vernment : the first express would arrive 
about four o’clock this morning, and I at¬ 
tempt a telegraph message, but it is cloudy. 
I beg you will send for any thing you may 
want, to me, and it shall be sent instantly ; 
and I beg to present my respects to Napo¬ 
leon, and if I can render him any civility, I 
will consider it my duty, as well as in grati¬ 
tude for Captain Elphinstone’s report of the 
attention he received from him on the field 
of battle.” 


120 


NARRATIVE OF 


During the 25th of July, the concourse of 
people round the ship was greater than the 
day before, and the anxiety of the Frenchmen 
was considerably augmented by the confi¬ 
dence with which the newspapers spoke of 
the intention to remove Buonaparte to St. 
Helena. In the afternoon, he walked above 
an hour on deck, frequently stood at the 
gangway, or opposite to the quarter-deck 
ports, for the purpose of giving the people 
an opportunity of seeing him, and, whenever 
he observed any well-dressed women, pulled 
his hat off, and bowed to them. 

At dinner he conversed as usual, was in¬ 
quisitive about the kinds offish produced on 
the coast of England, and ate part of a turbot 
that was at table with much relish. He then 
spoke of the character of the fishermen and 
boatmen on our coast, saying, “ They are ge¬ 
nerally smugglers as well as fishermen; at one 
time a great many of them were in my pay. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


121 


for the purpose of obtaining intelligence, 
bringing money over to France, and assist¬ 
ing prisoners of war to escape. They even 
offered, for a large sum of money, to seize 
the person of Louis, and deliver him into my 
hands ; but as they could not guarantee the 
preservation of his life, I would not give my 
consent to the measure.” 

At three in the morning of the 26th of 
July, Captain Sartorius returned from Lon¬ 
don; having carried my despatch announ¬ 
cing Buonaparte’s intention to embark in the 
Bellerophon, and brought with him orders 
for me to proceed to Plymouth Sound. We 
immediately got under weigh, accompanied 
by the Myrmidon and Slaney. While heav¬ 
ing the anchor up, Las Cases came upon 
deck, when I told him the ship was ordered 
to Plymouth, supposing, if he thought it re¬ 
quisite, he would acquaint his master. Soon 
after the ship was at sea, Madame Bertrand 


122 


NARRATIVE OF 


made her appearance, when she attacked 
me with some warmth for having neglected 
to acquaint Buonaparte with the orders I 
had received, and told me he was exces¬ 
sively offended. As she had once or twice 
before, when every thing did not go exactly 
as she wished, held the same language, I de¬ 
termined to ascertain whether Buonaparte 
had expressed any dissatisfaction, and, if so, 
to come to an explanation with him, as, 
though I was inclined to treat him with 
every proper consideration, it never was my 
intention to be looked upon as responsible 
to him for my movements ; I therefore told 
Las Cases what she had said, and requested 
he would ascertain whether Napoleon really 
had felt displeased. He immediately went 
into the cabin, and on his return assured me 
that there must have been some mistake, as 
nothing of the kind had taken place. 


The ship’s removal to the westward was 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


123 


by no means an agreeable event to the suite 
of my guest: they naturally reasoned, that, 
had it been the intention of the British 
Government to allow him to land in England, 
he would not have been removed further 
from the Metropolis. He, however, made no 
observations on the subject himself; still 
affecting to consider the reports in the news¬ 
papers as the surmises of the editors. 

We had, during the forenoon of the 26th of 
July, to beat up from the Start to Plymouth 
Sound, against a strong northerly wind. 
Buonaparte remained upon deck the greater 
part of the day. When going into the Sound, 
I pointed out the Breakwater to him, and 
described the manner in which they were 
forming it. He said, it was a great national 
undertaking, and highly honourable to the 
country; enquired the estimated expense, 
and seemed surprised, when I told him it 
was expected to be finished for something 


124 


NARRATIVE OF 


less than a million sterling. He added, “ I 
have expended a large sum of money on the 
port of Cherbourg, and in forming the 
Boyart Fort, to protect the anchorage at 
Isle d’Aix ; but I fear now, those and many 
other of my improvements will be neglected, 
and allowed to go to ruin/’ 

When the ship had anchored, I informed 
him I was going to wait on the Commander- 
in-chief, and requested to know if I could 
convey any message from him. He desired 
me to return his thanks to Lord Keith, for 
the kind intentions he had expressed towards 
him in his letters to me, and to say he was 
extremely anxious to see his Lordship, if it 
could be done with propriety. On delivering 
his message to Lord Keith, he answered, 

“ I would wait upon him with much plea¬ 
sure, but, to tell you the truth, I have as yet 
received no instructions as to the manner in 
which he is to be treated; and until I do 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


125 


receive these, I cannot well visit him.” He 
then gave me some precautionary orders 
to prevent his escape, or any attempt to 
effect it. From which I give the extracts 
below. 


Extract of an Order from Admiral Viscount Keith, G. C. B. 
to Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. Bellerophon, dated 
Hamoaze, July 26, 1815. 

“In addition to the orders already received, 
you are to pay the strictest regard and atten¬ 
tion to the directions contained in the en¬ 
closed extract of a letter from the Secretary 
of the Admiralty. If General Gourgaud has 
not already been taken out of the Slaney, 
you are to cause him to be removed imme¬ 
diately into the ship you command. I en¬ 
close, for your information, a copy of a general 
order that I have issued, forbidding commu¬ 
nication with the ship you command; and 
it is my intention to order the Liffey and 
Eurotas to anchor near you, and to row 
guard.” 


126 


NARRATIVE OF 


Extract of a Letter from the Secretary of the Admiralty 
to Admiral Viscount Keith, G. C. B.; dated 24th July' 
1815 ; enclosed in the foregoing. 

“ Referring your Lordship to Mr. Croker’s 
letter of the 1st instant, respecting Buona¬ 
parte, I am to signify their Lordships’ direc¬ 
tions to you, to give the most positive orders 
to Captain Maitland to prevent all commu¬ 
nication whatever with the shore but through 
him, and by him through your Lordship ; and 
on no account to permit any person whatso¬ 
ever to go on board the ship, without your 
Lordship’s permission given in writing for that 
purpose; which permission, for obvious rea¬ 
sons, will only be granted in such cases as the 
public service may require : and proper mea¬ 
sures are to be taken to prevent boats and small 
craft from crowding near the Bellerophon. 

“ Your Lordship will restrict the captains 
and commanders of your squadron from 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


127 


communicating, until further orders, with 
the Bellerophon.” 

There was also enclosed the following copy of a Memo¬ 
randum, addressed to the respective Captains of H. M. 

Ships LifFey and Eurotas. 

Ville de Paris, in Hamoaze, 26th July, 1815, 

“ Memo : 

“ The LifFey and Eurotas are to take up 
an anchorage on each side of the Bellero¬ 
phon, at a convenient distance, and observe 
the following directions, as well for the 
purpose of preventing the escape of Buo¬ 
naparte, or any of his suite, from that ship, 
as for restraining shore-boats and others 
from approaching too close to her, either 
from curiosity or any other motive. 

“ A constant watch of an officer, a quarter- 
watch, and double sentinels, are to be kept 
by day, as well as a boat manned and 
armed alongside, in constant readiness, as 


128 


NARRATIVE OF 


a guard-boat: the same precaution is to be 
observed all night, with the exception, that 
one of the boats, in charge of a lieutenant, 
is to row guard, and to be relieved every 
hour. 

“ No shore-boats, or others, are to be 
suffered, either by night or by day, to ap¬ 
proach nearer the Bellerophon than one 
cable’s length; and no boats are to be per¬ 
mitted to loiter about the ship, even at 
that distance, either from curiosity or any 
other motive : neither the captains of the 
Liffey or Eurotas, nor any other officer 
belonging to those or any other ships, are 
to go on board the Bellerophon, either to 
visit, or on any pretence whatever, without 
permission from me in writing.’’ 

Signed, Keith, Admiral. 

A Copy. 

Keith, Admiral. 

To the respective Captains of the 
Liffey and Eurotas. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


129 


When I returned on board, I found the 
frigates had taken their positions as directed 
in the last order, and their boats were en¬ 
deavouring as much as possible to keep the 
shore-boats at the specified distance from 
the ship. I stated to Buonaparte what Lord 
Keith had said ; to which he answered, “ 1 
am extremely anxious to see the Admiral, 
and therefore beg he will not stand upon ce¬ 
remony : I shall be satisfied to be treated as a 
private person, until the British Government 
has determined in what light I am to be 
considered.” He then complained of the 
two frigates being placed as guard-ships 
over him, “ as if,” said he, “ I were not per¬ 
fectly secure on board a British line-of-battle 
ship and added, “ The guard-ships’ boats 
have been firing musquetry all the evening, 
to keep the shore-boats at a distance: it dis¬ 
turbs and distresses me, and I shall be obliged 
to you to prevent it, if it lies in your power.” 


K 


130 


NARRATIVE OF 


I immediately sent to the Captains of the 
frigates, to put a stop to the firing. 

On the 27th of July, I received a letter 
from the Secretary of the Admiralty, of 
which I give an extract:— 

Extract of a Letter from the Secretary of the Admiralty, 
addressed to Captain Maitland of H. M. S. Bellero- 
phon, dated 25th July, 1815. 

“ I have received and laid before my 
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, your 
letter of yesterday’s date, reporting your 
arrival in the Bellerophon in Torbay, accom¬ 
panied by the Myrmidon, having on board 
Napoleon Buonaparte and suite, and trans¬ 
mitting a copy of a letter you had addressed 
to Admiral Lord Keith, reporting your pro¬ 
ceedings, under the various circumstances 
which occurred prior to his embarkation, of 
which their Lordships have been pleased to 
direct me to signify their approval.” 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 131 

J waited on Lord Keith in the morning 1 , 
and carried with me Buonaparte’s original 
letter to the Prince Regent, which General 
Gourgaud had refused to deliver to Captain 
Sartorius: finding that one of his own officers 
would not be allowed to proceed with it, 
he now consented to its being forwarded 
through the Admiral. I reported to his 
Lordship all the occurrences of the previous 
day; and that, in' consequence of the fre¬ 
quent repetition in the newspapers of its 
being the intention of his Majesty’s Govern¬ 
ment to send Buonaparte to St. Helena, he, 
as well as the officers of his suite, had ex¬ 
pressed much uneasiness. I also carried a 
message from him, stating his desire to see 
his Lordship, and that he would willingly 
wave all ceremony, and be considered as a 
private person. To which Lord Keith an¬ 
swered, “ I shall now have no difficulty 
whatever, having received full instructions 
as to the manner in which he is to be treated: 
k 2 


132 


NARRATIVE OF 


he is to be considered as a General Officer, 
and have the respect due to that rank paid 
him, and no more : you may therefore say I 
shall wait on him to-morrow forenoon.” He 
then put into my hands the following addi¬ 
tional orders. 


Extract of a Letter from Admiral Viscount Keith, 
G. C. B. addressed to Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. 
Bellerophon, dated Ville de Paris, Hamoaze, 27th July, 
1815. 

“ I herewith transmit an extract of an 
order, containing certain directions relative 
to Buonaparte and his suite, and you are 
forthwith to carry the same into execution ; 
sending on board the Liffey or Myrmidon, 
with directions similar to those that have 
been addressed to yourself, such of his suite 
as are to be withdrawn from the ship you 
command.” 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


133 


Extract of an Order from the Lords Commissioners of the 
Admiralty, to Admiral Viscount Keith, G. C. B. dated 
July 25th, 1815. 

“ That he should give immediate orders, 
that, upon the arrival of the Bellerophon, 
Napoleon Buonaparte should remain, until 
the Prince Regent’s further pleasure shall be 
signified, on board of that, or such other ship 
of war as we shall appoint, and shall not be 
permitted on any account to come on shore; 
or to hold communication with the shore, or 
with other vessels, either personally, or by 
writing. Not more than four or five persons 
of his suite (exclusive of menial servants) are 
to remain on board the same ship with him¬ 
self : the remainder of his suite are to be 
kept under similar restraint, on board of 
other vessels of war. Napoleon Buonaparte 
is to be considered and addressed as a Ge¬ 
neral Officer.” 


134 


NARRATIVE OF 


In consequence of those orders, several of 
the officers of inferior rank, and some of the 
servants, were sent to the frigates appointed 
to guard us. 

In the afternoon Sir Richard and Lady 
Strachan, accompanied by Mrs. Maitland, 
came alongside the ship. Buonaparte was 
walking the deck, and, when I told him my 
wife was in the boat, he went to the gang¬ 
way, pulled off his hat, and asked her if she 
would not come up and visit him. She shook 
her head ; and I informed him, that my orders 
were so positive, I could not even allow her 
to come on board. He answered, “ C’est 
dur, 9a.” “ That is very hard. 5 ' And ad¬ 

dressing himself to her, “ Milord Keith est 
un peu trop severe ; n’est-ce pas, Madame ?” 
“ Lord Keith is a little too severe; is he not, 
Madam ?” He then said to me, “ Ma foi, 
son portrait ne la flatte pas; elle est encore 
plus jolie que lui.” “ I assure you her 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


135 


portrait is not flattering; she is handsomer 
than it is.” I told him Sir Richard Strachan 
was in the boat with her, and that he was 
second in command of the Channel fleet: he 
bowed to him, and said, “ He appears a very 
young man to hold so high a rank.” 

There were this day a great many boats 
round the ship, full of people, among which 
were a number of well-dressed females. He 
expressed himself in strong terms of admi¬ 
ration of the beauty of the English women, 
and was desirous of knowing which were 
the ladies,—“ les dames comme il faut,” as 
he termed it; as they were all so well dress¬ 
ed that he could not distinguish them. 

In the evening a letter was sent to me by 
Lord Keith, of which I subjoin an extract:— 


136 


NARRATIVE OF 


Extract of a Letter from Admiral Viscount Keith, G. C. B. 
addressed to Captain Maitland of H. M. S. Bellero- 
phon, dated Ville de Paris, Hamoaze, 27th July, 1815. 

“ From the representation you have made 
to me of the dissatisfaction expressed by 
Buonaparte, on observing by the newspapers 
that he was to be sent to St. Helena; it will 
be necessary that you redouble your vigi¬ 
lance to prevent his escape; and you are 
therefore to station double sentinels, and 
resort to every other means that may be 
necessary for frustrating any such inten¬ 
tion.” 

On the 28 th of July, Lord Keith came on 
board, between eleven and twelve o’clock, 
and was shown by me into the cabin, where 
Count Bertrand introduced him to Buona¬ 
parte. I immediately withdrew, and cannot 
therefore state what passed between them ; 
but Lord Keith afterwards informed me, 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


137 


that Buonaparte had been very anxious to 
know whether the Government had come 
to any determination with regard to his dis¬ 
posal ; of which his Lordship professed total 
ignorance. 

After Lord Keith came out of the cabin, 
he remained some time with Buonaparte’s 
suite, who were collected in the state room. 
Madame Bertrand drew him aside, and en¬ 
tered into conversation with him, saying 
what she had repeated to me a hundred 
times, that it would be the height of injus¬ 
tice to send them to St. Helena, and en¬ 
deavouring to persuade him to interfere in 
preventing her husband at least from going, 
should Napoleon be sent there. 

During the whole of the 29 th of July 
it rained incessantly, and nothing worth 
relating took place: the Frenchmen were 
deprived of their usual amusement of ad- 


138 


NARRATIVE OF 


miring the ladies, and being admired in 
return, not a boat having made its appear¬ 
ance. They often remarked, with the cha¬ 
racteristic vivacity of their nation, that they 
were placed in the situation of Tantalus, 
—so many beauties in view, without the 
possibility of approaching them. 

On Sunday, the 30th of July, the crowd 
of boats was greater than I ever remember 
to have seen at one time. I am certain I 
speak within bounds when I state, that 
upwards of a thousand were collected round 
the ship, in each of which, on an average, 
there were not fewer than eight people. 
The crush was so great, as to render it quite 
impossible for the guard-boats to keep them 
off; though a boat belonging to one of the 
frigates made use of very violent means 
to effect it, frequently running against small 
boats, containing women, with such force 
as nearly to upset them, and alarming the 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


139 


ladies extremely. The French officers were 
very indignant at such rude proceedings, 
saying, “ Is this your English liberty? Were 
such a thing to happen in France, the men 
would rise with one accord and throw that 
officer and his crew overboard.” 

After the ship’s arrival in England, Buo¬ 
naparte seldom left the cabin earlier than 
five o’clock in the afternoon; passing his 
time in walking up and down the after¬ 
cabin, reading a great deal,* and often falling 
asleep on the sopha, having within these 
two or three years become very lethargic. 

I this day informed him, that Lord Keith 
had received an intimation, that Sir Henry 
Bunbury, one of the Under Secretaries of 
State, was to arrive in the course of the 

* The books that seemed to occupy his attention, when 
I had an opportunity of observing him, were, a Life of 
Washington, and a translation of Ossian s Poems. 


140 


NARRATIVE OF 


day with the decision of the British Go¬ 
vernment as to his future disposal. He 
asked me many questions, but, although 
Lord Keith had acquainted me that Buo¬ 
naparte was to go to St. Helena, he had at 
the same time desired me not to commu¬ 
nicate this information, and I was therefore 
obliged to evade his interrogatories as I best 
could. 

In the newspapers of this day there 
appeared the lists of persons proscribed 
by the Government of France. Among the 
first class were the names of Bertrand, Sa- 
vary, and Lallemand: the first treated it 
with derision, the two others appeared much 
alarmed, and often asked me if I thought 
it possible the British Government would 
deliver them up to Louis. I said, “ Deci¬ 
dedly not; you have been received on board 
an English man of war, and it never can 
be the intention of the Ministers to deliver 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


141 


you over to punishment.” They were not, 
however, satisfied by any means; and a 
French frigate, bearing the white flag, which 
lay in Hamoaze, was an object of much 
jealousy to them. 

When I waited on Lord Keith, the morn¬ 
ing of the 31st of July, he acquainted me 
that Sir Henry Bunbury had arrived, and 
was to accompany him on board at ten 
o’clock. He also showed me a notification 
of the decision of Government respecting 
Buonaparte, in which he was styled General 
throughout. It stated, that he was to be sent 
to St. Helena, and to be permitted to take 
with him three of the higher class of those 
that had accompanied him from France, and 
twelve domestics, who were to be selected 
by himself, with the exception pf Savary and 
^allemand, who were not on any account to 
be permitted to go with him. I imme¬ 
diately returned on board, to be in readiness 


142 


NARRATIVE OF 


to receive Lord Keith and Sir Henry Bun- 
bury; and informed Buonaparte, that he 
might expect them. He asked me if I knew 
what they were to communicate; and hav¬ 
ing then received his Lordship’s sanction for 
doing so, I told him, I understood it was 
determined he was to be sent to St. Helena. 
His mind had, by this time, been so much 
prepared by the newspapers for that event, 
that he did not show any very strong emotion 
at receiving the intimation ; though he com¬ 
plained, in strong terms, of the injustice of 
such a measure. As, however, the Admiral’s 
barge was seen approaching, and I was ob¬ 
liged to go upon deck to receive him, I had 
very little conversation with him at that 
time. 

Lord Keith and Sir Henry Bunbury ar¬ 
rived about half-past ten in the forenoon, 
when I showed them into the cabin, where 
Buonaparte was attended by Count Bertrand. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 143 

I then withdrew, leaving them shut up with 
him for about half-an-hour, when Lord Keith 
called me into the fore-cabin, where all the 
suite were assembled, and I presented each 
of them to the Admiral and Sir Henry. They 
all appeared very much distressed, but par¬ 
ticularly Savary and Lallemand; who were 
extremely urgent to know how they were to 
be disposed of; protesting, most vehemently, 
against their being given up to France, as a 
breach of all faith and honour. Madame 
Bertrand again tried to induce Lord Keith to 
use his influence with our Government, to 
prevent Bertrand from accompanying Buona¬ 
parte to St. Helena. 

As soon as the Admiral had left the ship, 
Buonaparte sent for me, and showed me the 
same paper Lord Keith had communicated to 
me in the morning. When I had read it, he 
complained vehemently of his treatment in 
being sent to St. Helena, saying, “ The idea 


144 


NARRATIVE OF 


of it is perfect horror to me. To be placed 
for life on an island within the Tropics, at 
an immense distance from any land, cut off 
from all communication with the world, and 
every thing that I hold dear in it!—c’est 
pis que la cage de fer de Tamerlan. (It 
is worse than Tamerlane’s iron cage.) I 
would prefer being delivered up to the Bour¬ 
bons. Among other insults,” said he ,—“ but 
that is a mere bagatelle, a very secondary 
consideration,—they style me General! they 
can have no right to call me General; they 
may as well call me Archbishop, for I was 
head of the church, as well as the army. If 
they do not acknowledge me as Emperor, 
they ought as First Consul; they have sent 
Ambassadors to me as such; and your King, 
in his letters, styled me brother. Had they 
confined me in the Tower of London, or one 
of the fortresses in England, (though not what 
I had hoped from the generosity of the Eng¬ 
lish people,) I should not have so much cause 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


145 


of complaint; but to banish me to an island 
within the Tropics ! They might as well have 
signed my death-warrant at once, as it is 
impossible a man of my habit of body can 
live long in such a climate.” 

He then expressed a desire to write another 
letter to the Prince Regent; and I carried it 
the same afternoon to Lord Keith, by whom 
it was immediately forwarded to London. 

Generals Savary and Lallemand this day 
made many appeals to me on the injustice 
of our Government delivering them up to 
France; saying they had not a doubt it was 
intended, else why except them from ac¬ 
companying the Emperor, as they were both 
married men, and Savary the father of a 
large family:—it was not the wish of either 
to have gone to St. Helena; but their being 
expressly excepted, and their names appear- 


L 


146 


NARRATIVE OF 


ing in the list of proscribed, was but too 
sure a proof of their intended fate. Savary 
added, “ Were I to be allowed a fair and im¬ 
partial trial, I should have nothing to fear, 
never having accepted a situation under 
Louis; but at present, when faction runs so 
high, I should inevitably be sacrificed to the 
fury of party. Lallemand’s case is quite 
different: he held a command under the 
King, and, on Napoleon’s return from Elba, 
joined him with his troops ; therefore, his si¬ 
tuation would at any time be a dangerous 
one :— but I lived in the country all the time 
Louis was in France, and did not come for¬ 
ward until Buonaparte’s arrival in Paris, 
when he directed me to take the command 
of the Gendarmerie.” 

Lallemand said, " My reason for coming 
on board the Bellerophon with Las Cases 
on the morning of the 14th, was to as¬ 
certain whether there would be a risk of 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


147 


any of the Emperor’s followers being de¬ 
livered up to the French Government, in the 
event of their accompanying him to Eng¬ 
land ; when you assured me there could be 
no danger of it.” I replied, “ My answer to 
you was, that I was of opinion there could 
be no risk of the British Government taking 
such a step ; and I see no reason now to alter 
that opinion. As I have received you on board 
the Bellerophon, I consider you under the 
protection of the British flag, and myself, in 
a great measure, responsible for your perso¬ 
nal safety ; and under that impression I will 
write on the subject to Lord Melville, as the 
Minister under whose immediate control I 
act, that your minds may be set at rest, 
though, I repeat, you run no hazard of being 
sent to France.” The same evening, before 
I went to bed, I wrote the letter which fol¬ 
lows :— 


148 


NARRATIVE OK 


“H. M. S. Bellerophon, 
Plymouth Sound, 31st July, 1815. 

“ My Lord, 

“ I am induced to address your Lordship 
in consequence of having observed, in the 
intimation delivered to Napoleon Buonaparte 
of the number of persons allowed to accom¬ 
pany him to the Island of St. Helena, that the 
names of Savary and Lallemand are ex¬ 
pressly excepted, which, together with their 
being proscribed in the French newspapers, 
has created in them a belief that it is the 
intention of His Majesty’s Government to 
deliver them up to the King of France. 
Far be it from me to assume such an idea; 
but I hope your Lordship will make allow¬ 
ance for the feelings of an officer who has 
nothing so dear to him as his honour, and 
who could not bear that a stain should be 
affixed to a name he has ever endeavoured 
to bear unblemished. These two men, 
Savary and Lallemand (what their charac¬ 
ters or conduct in their own country may be 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 149 

I know not), threw themselves under the 
protection of the British flag ; that protec¬ 
tion was granted them with the sanction of 
my name. It is true, no conditions were 
stipulated; but for I acted in the full con¬ 
fidence that their lives would be held sa¬ 
cred, or they should never have put foot 
in the ship I command, without being made 
acquainted that it was for the purpose of 
delivering them over to the laws of their 
country. 

“ 1 again beg leave to repeat to your Lord- 
ship, that I am far from supposing it to be 
the intention of His Majesty’s Government 
to deliver these men over to the laws of 
their country; but, as they are strongly im¬ 
pressed with that belief, and I look upon 
myself as the cause of their being in their 
present situation, I most earnestly beg your 
Lordship’s influence may be exerted that 
two men may not be brought to the scaffold 


150 


NARRATIVE OF 


who claimed and obtained at my hands the 
protection of the British flag. 

“ I have the honour to be, 

&c. &c. &c. 

“ Fred. L. Maitland.” 

“ The Viscount Melville, 

&c. &c. &c.’’ 


I felt convinced that Buonaparte, after 
the notification he had received, would be 
too much depressed in spirits to make his 
appearance on deck this day ; and sent a boat 
to some of my friends, who were waiting 
in hopes of seeing him, to say there was no 
chance of his coming out, as he was much 
distressed at the communication which had 
been made to him. I was, therefore, a good 
deal surprised, on turning round, to find him 
standing at my elbow; and I can only ac¬ 
count for his showing himself as usual, by 
supposing either that he was not in fact so 
much annoyed as 1 had believed him to be. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


151 


or that he was actuated by a desire of 
creating a feeling of commiseration among 
the English people in his behalf. 

At dinner he conversed as usual; and, 
indeed, it was quite astonishing with what 
elasticity his spirits regained their usual 
cheerfulness, after such trials and disap¬ 
pointments. He never, in my hearing, 
threatened to commit suicide; nor do I be¬ 
lieve he did on any occasion : the only ex¬ 
pression I ever heard him make use of, that 
could in any way be construed into such a 
threat, was, that he would noj; go to St. 
Helena,—“ Je n’irai pas a St. H£l£ne.” 

As Buonaparte always retired early to 
bed, it was the custom for the French ladies 
and officers to assemble every evening in the 
ward-room, and partake of wine and water, 
punch, or bishop—a mixture consisting of 
Port, Madeira, nutmeg, and other ingre- 


152 


NARRATIVE OF 


dients, well-known to sailors, and much 
relished by our foreign guests. 

I was sitting this evening next Montholon, 
when Madame Bertrand entered ; I said to 
her, “ Will you not sit down and take 
something?” She gave an answer which I 
took for No ; and passed rapidly into the first 
lieutenant’s cabin, which she had occupied 
since she came on board. Montholon, who 
had observed her with more attention than 
I had done, immediately rose and followed 
her. There was instantly a shriek from the 
cabin, and a great uproar; and some- one 
called out ‘The Countess is overboard.’ I ran 
upon deck, that, in the event of its being so, 
a boat might be lowered down, or the guard- 
boats called to her assistance. On looking 
over the quarter, and seeing no splash in the 
water, I felt satisfied it was a false alarm, 
and returned to the ward-room. Madame 
Bertrand had by this time been placed on 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


153 


her bed, where she was lying in strong 
hysterics, at intervals abusing the English 
nation and its Government, in the most 
vehement and unmeasured terms; sometimes 
in French and sometimes in English. Lalle- 
mand was walking up and down the ward¬ 
room much agitated, joining in the abuse; 
saying, among other things, “ that it was 
horrible to bring a set of people on board the 
ship for the purpose of butchering them.” 
I turned to him, and said, “ Monsieur Lalle- 
mand, what a woman says in the state of 
violent irritation that Madame Bertrand at 
present is, I consider of little consequence, 
and am willing to make every allowance for 
the situation you are placed in ; but I cannot 
stand by and hear such terms used of the 
Government of my country; and if you do 
not desist, or make use of more respectful 
language, I shall be under the necessity of 
taking measures that will be very unpleasant 
both to you and myself.’’ 


154 


NARRATIVE OF 


This had the effect of silencing him. When 
the bustle had subsided, I retired to my ca¬ 
bin, and was employed in writing the fore¬ 
going letter to Lord Melville, in behalf of 
Messrs. Savary and Lallemand; when the 
latter, attended by Generals Montholon and 
Gourgaud, came in. They immediately en¬ 
tered into conversation with me about the 
cruelty of their situation : among many other 
things, they said, “ You may depend upon it, 
the Emperor never will go to St. Helena; he 
will sooner put himself to death ; he is a man 
of determined character, and what he says 
he will do.” “ Has he ever said he will 
put himself to death?” I asked. They an¬ 
swered, “ No ; but he has said he will not go, 
which amounts to the same thing; and were 
he to consent himself, here are three of us 
who are determined to prevent him.” I told 
them they had better consider the conse¬ 
quences well, before they ventured on a mea¬ 
sure of that kind. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND 155 

The next day, August 1st, 1815, I waited 
on Lord Keith, and reported all that had 
occurred during the preceding day. I also 
showed him the letter I had written and 
meant to send to Lord Melville, respecting 
Generals Savary and Lallemand; he read it, 
and said, “ that though he did not agree with 
me in opinion as to my honour or character 
being implicated, yet that he saw no harm in 
the letter.” He then said, “ You may tell 
those gentlemen who have threatened to be 
Buonaparte’s executioners, that the law of 
England awards death to murderers, and 
that the certain consequence of such an act 
will be finishing their career on a gallows.” 

After quitting his Lordship, I had an inter¬ 
view with Sir Henry Bunbury, previous to 
his setting out for London, and stated to him 
my feelings respecting the cruelty of deliver¬ 
ing up to the French Government, men who 
had been received under the protection of the 


156 


NAKllATIVE OF 


British flag. I said that I had no belief my¬ 
self that any such intention existed ; but that 
they were so strongly impressed with the 
conviction of it, that I had been induced to 
write to Lord Melville, and now begged to 
state to him, that I should consider myself 
dishonoured for ever, if they suffered death 
through my means. He listened, but did not 
speak till I had finished ; when he told me 
he would repeat what I had said to his Ma¬ 
jesty’s Ministers. 

Madame Bertrand kept her bed the whole 
of this day, and did not appear at dinner. 
When Buonaparte came upon deck, he asked 
Mr. O’Meara, the surgeon, after her health ; 
and then said, with an incredulous smile/* Do 
you really think, Doctor, she meant to drown 
herself ?’’ I put the same question to Mont- 
holon; who said he had not a doubt of it, 
for, when he followed her into the cabin, she 
was in the act of throwing herself out of the 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 157 

gallery window; that he rushed forward and 
caught hold of her, and that she continued 
suspended by the bar that goes across the 
window, with the greater part of her body 
hanging out, until he received assistance to 
drag her in. The bar above-mentioned had 
been placed there for the purpose of prevent- 
ing people trom falling overboard when the 
window was open and the ship had much 
motion at sea. 

On returning on board after being with 
Lord Keith, I went into Madame Bertrand’s 
cabin to see how she was, and found her in 
bed. I asked her, how she could be so in¬ 
discreet as to attempt to destroy herself? 
“ Oh ! I am driven to desperation,” she said; 
“ I do not know what I do; I cannot per¬ 
suade my husband to remain behind, he be¬ 
ing determined to accompany the Emperor 
to St. Helena.” She then ran into a great 
deal of abuse of Napoleon, saying, “ If his 


158 


NARRATIVE OF 


ends are served, he does not care what be¬ 
comes of other people. Tis true he has always 
given Bertrand lucrative and honourable si¬ 
tuations, but the expense attending them is 
such, that it was impossible to save money ; 
and he has never given him a grant of land, 
or any thing that permanently bettered our 
fortune.” On another occasion, she came 
into the cabin which I occupied, when I was 
writing, and, after exacting a promise of 
secrecy towards the remainder of the suite, 
she entreated I would take measures to pre¬ 
vent her husband from accompanying Buo¬ 
naparte, and begged me to write a letter in 
her name to Lord Keith, to induce him to in¬ 
terfere. I told her it would appear extremely 
officious in me to write on such a subject, 
but that any thing she chose to put on paper 
I would deliver to his Lordship. She did 
write, and I carried the letter; but his Lord- 
ship declined interfering, desiring me to 
say, he considered it the duty of every good 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


159 


wife to follow the fortunes of her husband. 
In the course of the conversation above- 
mentioned, she became extremely warm in 
speaking of Napoleon, saying,“ He deserves 
nothing at our hands; and, indeed, there is 
not one of his people who would not most 
gladly quit him/’ Whenever she became ani¬ 
mated, she could not pour out her feelings 
in the English language fast enough, (though 
she spoke it remarkably well, having receiv¬ 
ed her education partly in England,) when 
she had always recourse to French; and 
though I frequently reminded her that there 
was nothing but a piece of canvass between 
us and the ward-room, where there were 
generally some of the French officers, I could 
by no means keep her within bounds. The 
consequence of which was, that all she said 
was heard and understood by one of them. 
When Madame Bertrand had left me, Count 
Montholon requested to speak with me in 
private. He carried me up to his cabin on 


160 


NAH NATIVE OF 


the quarter-deck, where I found Generals 
Gourgaud and Lallemand, who told me they 
had been informed of what Madame Ber¬ 
trand had said to me; and they had requested 
to see me, for the purpose of contradicting 
her assertion, that they were desirous of 
quitting Buonaparte: that, so far from that 
being the case, there was not one of them 
that would not follow him with pleasure 
wherever he might be sent, or that would 
not lay down his life to serve him: they also 
required secrecy towards the Countess. I 
answered, “ Why really, gentlemen, this is 
very extraordinary ; you pretend to know all 
that passed in a private conversation I have 
had with Madame Bertrand, and then to 
bind me to secrecy : you may depend upon 
it, I will enter into no such engagement, un¬ 
til I know by what means you obtained your 
information.” They then told me that one of 
them had been in the quarter-gallery, and 
overheard all she said. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 161 

IN othing of importance occurred during 
the 2d of August. Buonaparte did not ap¬ 
pear upon deck; nor would he consent to 
nominate the people who were to accom¬ 
pany him to St. Helena; he still seemed to 
indulge a hope, that the Government might 
be induced to reconsider the decision. I 
had half an hour’s conversation with him in 
the cabin : it consisted, on his part, of com¬ 
plaints of the cruelty of sending him to St. 
Helena. He likewise asked me many ques¬ 
tions about that island, as to its extent, cli¬ 
mate, and productions, whether it would be 
possible to take exercise on horseback, if 
there was game of any kind upon it, &c. : 
to all of which I could only answer from 
report, never having visited the island my¬ 
self. He conversed very little at dinner, and 
appeared unwell. In the evening, General 
Bertrand informed me that the sentinel’s 
calling out “ All’s well!” during the night 
disturbed him, and prevented his sleeping; 


M 


1 62 


NARRATIVE OF 


upon which I gave directions they should 
not do so while he remained on board. 

During the 3d of August Buonaparte kept 
his cabin. When I went to the Admiral, I 
met him escorting some ladies, in company 
with Sir William Lemon, to the Ville de 
Paris’s barge. On being introduced to Sir 
William, he told me that a report was in 
circulation that a boat was to have been 
under the Bellerophon’s stern the night 
before, at ten o’clock, for the purpose of ef¬ 
fecting Buonaparte’s escape. Although I 
gave no credit to the report, I immediately 
returned on board, and asked the first lieu¬ 
tenant if Buonaparte had been seen that 
morning; he informed me that he had not 
attended breakfast, and that no person had 
seen him but his own people. I then sent 
to the Eurotas, which lay astern of the ship, 
to enquire if he had appeared at the stern 
windows ; but was answered in the negative : 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


163 


upon which I desired one of the young gen¬ 
tlemen to go out on the spanker-boom and 
look into the cabin windows, to ascertain if 
he was sitting on the sofa ; but he could not 
discover him in any part of the cabin. I 
then became extremely uneasy, and sent my 
servant in to bring some paper out, who 
on entering found the object of my anxiety 
stretched out on his bed with his clothes on, 
and the curtains drawn close round him, 
with every appearance of being unwell. I 
had before asked Count Bertrand about him, 
who said he had passed a bad night, and was 
too ill to leave his apartment. 

Instead of retiring to his bed this eve¬ 
ning between eight and nine o’clock, as was 
his usual custom, I heard him and another 
person (I believe General Bertrand) pacing 
up and down the cabin until past eleven; 
and in consequence gave directions to the 
officer of the watch and the sentries to be 
m 2 


164 


NARRATIVE OF 


particularly vigilant; and ordered one of the 
guard-boats to remain under the ship’s stern 
all night. He had still declined all this day 
giving a list of those that he wished to at¬ 
tend him to St. Helena. 

At three in the morning of the 4th of 
August, the officer of the watch brought me 
a letter from Lord Keith, informing me that 
a courier had just arrived from London, and 
that it was probable the ship would be re¬ 
quired to put to sea at a moment’s notice. 
In consequence of this order, we unmoored 
at day-light, bent the top-gallant sails, and 
made other preparations for getting under 
weigh. The Frenchmen were very watch¬ 
ful of all our motions, appeared much alarmed 
and annoyed, and questioned me frequently as 
to the cause. I told them, what was literally 
the fact, that I had received directions to 
be ready to put to sea, but had no orders to 
carry it into effect; and that was all I knew. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 165 

Between seven and eight o’clock, I waited 
on Lord Keith, who said he had received 
information that a habeas corpus had been 
taken out for the purpose of bringing Buo¬ 
naparte on shore, and that a lawyer was on 
his way down to serve it; desiring me, 
therefore, to be ready to put to sea when¬ 
ever the signal might be made. 

On returning on board, I had an interview 
with Buonaparte, who was very urgent to 
know why the ship was preparing for sea. 
I told him, by Lord Keiths directions, that 
it was the intention of our Government, his 
removal should take place at sea; and that 
we were going out to meet the Northum¬ 
berland, the ship which was to convey him 
to St. Helena. 

He begged I would write to Lord Keith, 
and say he wished very much to see him; 
and Count Bertrand told me he was also de- 


166 


NARRATIVE OF 


sirous of having the newspapers. I accord¬ 
ingly wrote to his Lordship, who was then 
on board the Tonnant: who, however, de¬ 
clined visiting him, but sent me a note, of 
which the following is an extract. 

Extract of a Note from Admiral Viscount Keith, addressed 
to Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. Bellerophon; dated 
Tonnant, 4th August. 

“ I send you the paper, and shall be glad 
to hear the determination of the General, 
whom you may inform that the answer is ar¬ 
rived from London, and that I have no autho¬ 
rity to alter, in any degree, any part of the 
former communication; which induces me to 
wish the selection of the persons he is in¬ 
clined should attend him.” 

I communicated the contents to General 
Bertrand, who made his report to Buona¬ 
parte. On his coming out of the cabin, I 
pressed him on the subject of nominating 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


167 


those that were to go with him to St. He¬ 
lena ; but the only answer he returned was, 

L'Empereur n’ira pas k St. tI61enethe 
Emperor will not go to St. Helena. 

Soon after nine o’clock, the Bellerophon’s 
signal was made to prepare to weigh, and at 
half-past nine to weigh : we immediately 
started. As the light air of wind that blew 
was right into the Sound, and the flood-tide 
against* us, the guard-boats were sent a-head 
to tow ; but, soon observing a suspicious- 
looking person in a boat approaching the 
ship, I ordered one of them to cast off, keep 
under the ship’s stern, and not allow any 
shore boat, under any pretext, to come near 
us. The person alluded to proved after¬ 
wards to have been the lawyer mentioned 
by Lord Keith; not with a Habeas Corpus, 
but a subpoena for Buonaparte to attend a 
trial at the Court of King’s Bench as a wit¬ 
ness. He was, however, foiled: as Lord 


168 


NARRATIVE OF 


Keith avoided him, and got on board the 
Prometheus, off the Ramehead, where he 
remained until joined by the Tonnant; while 
the guard-boat prevented him from approach¬ 
ing near enough to the Bellerophon, to serve 
his writ on me.* 


* To prevent erroneous impressions from going abroad, 
and to put this curious circumstance in its true light, I 
have prevailed on a friend, who was educated for the Eng¬ 
lish bar, to favour me with the following account of the 
writs of the Habeas Corpus and subpoena; by which it 
will appear that no such process, or any other, as far as I 
can understand, could have had the effect of removing 
Buonaparte from one of His Majesty’s ships, and causing 
him to be landed in England in opposition to the commands 
of the Government of the country. 

“ It is a common mistake to suppose that the celebrated 
Habeas Corpus Act made it a matter of right, for every 
person, under any restraint whatever to obtain this writ. 
That statute related to persons committed by legal pro¬ 
cess for criminal offences, and the object of it was to pre¬ 
vent them being detained an unnecessary or unreasonable 
length of time, without being brought to trial. Other 
cases of alleged illegal detention were left as at common 
law: in these the granting or refusal of the writ ia dis¬ 
cretionary in the Court, or Judge applied to, and it will 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


169 


While the ship was working out of the 
Sound, two well-dressed women in a boat 

only be issued on a proper case being laid before them. 
No such writ, it is believed, was ever applied for in Buo¬ 
naparte’s case; nor, if applied for, would it have been ob¬ 
tained. Where a foreigner, in private life, is brought to 
England, and detained against his will, the Court will 
grant the writ; but any application of Buonaparte, or on 
his behalf, must have shown him to have surrendered, and 
to have been then detained as a prisoner of war. Under that 
character, he was not entitled to the benefit of this writ; 
the Courts having refused it on the application of indivi¬ 
duals brought to England as prisoners of war, even when 
applied for by the subject of a neutral power, who swore 
to his having been compelled by force to serve the enemy, 
and to have been captured in the course of that compul¬ 
sory service. 

“ The real transaction alluded to, is understood to have 
been this : an individual being under prosecution for a li¬ 
bel on a naval officer, censuring his conduct on the West 
India station, when a French squadron was in those seas, 
pretended that it would aid his defence to show that the 
French ships were at that time in an unserviceable con¬ 
dition, and that Buonaparte would be able to prove the 
fact. He accordingly obtained a subpoena for him to at¬ 
tend as a witness on the trial in the Court of King’s Bench, 
and endeavoured himself, and not by a lawyer, as at first 
supposed, to get on board the Bellerophon to deliver it. 


170 


narrative of 


kept as close to her as the guard-boat 
would allow, and, whenever Buonaparte ap¬ 
peared at the stern windows, stood up and 
waved their handkerchiefs. 


“ This transaction probably gave currency to the ru¬ 
mours of a Habeas Corpus having been issued, particularly 
as one description of that writ is, the proceeding for bring- 
ing a prisoner into Court to give evidence, which having 
given, he is remanded to gaol. 

“ Had the individual in question succeeded in his at¬ 
tempt to get on board the ship, and deliver the subpoena, 
it would have been of no assistance either to himself or 
Buonaparte, if it was at all intended to benefit the latter, 
as it would not have been possible for him to obey it, there 
not being any authority for Captain Maitland, who>was 
answerable for his safety as a prisoner, allowing him to do 
so. It was, however, considered the most prudent course, 
by Lord Keith, not to permit the delivery of the process, 
the exact nature of which was at the moment unknown, 
lest it might involve himself or Captain Maitland in any 
difficulty, by an apparent disrespect to the Court, and 
more particularly as it might create erroneous impressions 
in Buonaparte’s mind, that a breach of the law was com¬ 
mitted in his not being permitted to comply with the terms 
of the document, not aware that it contained no power au, 
thorizing his release from detention as a prisoner of war.”' 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


171 


On joining theNPrometheus off the Rame- 
head, where Lord Keith’s flag was then 
flying, I received the following note from his 
Lordship. 

No date; received August 4th, in the Afternoon. 

“ I have been chased all day by a lawyer 
with a Habeas Corpus: he is landed at 
Cawsand, and may come off in a sailing-boat 
during the night; of course, keep all sorts 
of boats off, as I will do the like in whatever 
ship I may be in. “ Keith.” 

“ Captain Maitland.” 

Buonaparte wrote another letter this even¬ 
ing to the Prince Regent, which I carried to 
Lord Keith, who again told me of his having 
been chased all day by a lawyer: who had 
first started him out of his own house, then 
followed him to the Tonnant, where he at- 
tempted to get in at one side, as his Lord- 


172 


NARRATIVE OF 


ship left her on the other; he afterwards 
pursued him towards Cawsand, but the 
Admiral being in a twelve-oared barge, 
outrowed him, and gave him the slip round 
the Ramehead. It was on his return from 
this chase that he attempted to get on board 
the Bellerophon. 

Buonaparte now confined himself entirely 
to his cabin, never coming on deck, or ap¬ 
pearing at breakfast or dinner. He was not 
served from the table, but what he ate was 
prepared and carried in to him by Marchand, 
his favourite valet de chambre. Messrs. 
Bertrand and Las Cases passed much time 
with him ; and this evening the protest was 
prepared, which will appear in the sequel. 

On the morning of the 5th of August, the 
weather was overcast, with a strong breeze 
of wind, and the sea began to rise, much to 
the discomposure of my poor French guests. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


173 


Soon after breakfast, my signal being made 
from the Tonnant, where Lord Keith had 
now hoisted his flag, I told General Bertrand 
that I was going to the Admiral, and would 
convey any thing Buonaparte had to say to 
him. He requested I would wait until a 
letter or paper, then under preparation, was 
finished, which was intended for me, but a 
copy to be presented to Lord Keith. I wait¬ 
ed nearly an hour, when he brought me 
Buonaparte’s protest. I delivered it to the 
Admiral, stating at the same time that I 
wished to have a copy; and was afterwards 
furnished with one by his Lordship’s secre¬ 
tary. I insert it here. 

Buonapartes Protest. 

“ Je proteste solennellement iqi, a la face 
du Ciel et des hommes, contre la violence 
qui m’est faite, contre la violation de mes 
droits les plus sacr6s, en disposant par la 
force, de ma personne et de ma libertA 


174 


NARRATIVE OF 


“ Je suis venu librement a bord du Belle- 
rophon; je ne suis point prisonnier; je suis 
l’hdte de l’Angleterre. J’y suis venu k Finsti- 
gation meme du Capitaine qui a dit avoir des 
ordres du Gouvernement de me recevoir,et de 
me conduire en Angleterre avec ma suite, si 
celam’^toit agr^able. Je me suis pr6sent6 de 
bonne foi pour venir me mettre sous la pro¬ 
tection des loix d’Angleterre. Aussitot assis 
a bord du Bellerophon, je fus surle foyer du 
peuple Britannique. Si le Gouvernement. en 
donnant des ordres au Capitaine du Bellero¬ 
phon, de me recevoir ainsi que ma suite, n’a 
voulu que tendre une embuche, ll a forfait a 
l’honneur et fletri son pavilion. Si cet acte 
se consommoit, ce seroit en vain que les 
Anglais voudroient parler k FEurope de leur 
loyaut6, de leur loix, et de leur liberty La 
foi Britannique sy trouvera perdue dans I'hos - 
pitalite du Bellerophon . Jen appelle a Fhis- 
toire ; elle dira qu’un ennemi qui fit vingt ans 
la guerre aux peuples Anglois, vint librement, 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


175 


dans son infortune, chercher un asile sous ses 
loix. Quelle plus eclatante preuve pouvait-il 
lui donner de son estime et de sa confiance ? 
Mais comment r^pondit-on en Angleterre a 
une telle magnanimity?—On feignit de tendre 
une main hospitalise a cet ennemi, et quand 
il se fut livry de bonne foi, on limmola. 

“ Signy, Napoleon/' 

A' bord du Bellerophon, 

4Aout, 1815. 


TRANSLATION. 

Buonaparte s Protest . 

“ I hereby solemnly protest, in the face of 
Heaven and of men, against the violence 
done me, and against the violation of my 
most sacred rights, in forcibly disposing of 
my person and my liberty. I came volun¬ 
tarily on board of the Bellerophon; I am 
not a prisoner, I am the guest of England.' 
I came on board even at the instigation of the 
Captain, who told me he had orders from 


176 


NARRATIVE OF 


the Government to receive me and my suite, 
and conduct me to England, if agreeable 
to me. I presented myself with good faith 
to put myself under the protection of the 
English laws. As soon as I was on board 
the Bellerophon, I was under shelter of the 
British people. 

“ If the Government, in giving orders to 
the Captain of the Bellerophon to receive 
me as well as my suite, only intended to lay 
a snare for me, it has forfeited its honour and 
disgraced its flag. 

“ If this act be consummated, the English 
will in vain boast to Europe of their inte¬ 
grity, their laws, and their liberty. British 
good faith will be lost in the hospitality of 
the Bellerophon. 

“ I appeal to History; it will say that an 
enemy, who for twenty years waged war 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 177 

against the English people, came volunta¬ 
rily, in his misfortunes, to seek an asylum 
under their laws. What more brilliant proof 
could he give of his esteem and his con¬ 
fidence ? But what return did England 
make for so much magnanimity? They 
feigned to stretch forth a friendly hand to 
that enemy; and when he delivered himself 
up in good faith, they sacrificed him. 

Signed, Napoleon.’* 

" On board the Bellerophon, 

4th August, 1815.” 

On the above I shall only observe, that 
no snare had been laid, either on the part of 
His Majesty’s Government or mine. I was 
placed before Rochefort for the open pur¬ 
pose of preventing Buonaparte from making 
his escape from that port; and the exertions 
of myself and those under my command had 
been so completely successful, that the in¬ 
tention of forcing past the ships under my 

N 


178 


NARRATIVE OF 


orders, as well as every other plan pro¬ 
posed, of which there appear to have been 
several, were abandoned as utterly hopeless. 
And so far was I from seeking communica¬ 
tion with Napoleon, that all the flags of 
truce proceeding from him, were strongly 
reprobated by me, as improper, except in 
extraordinary cases, and were only resorted 
to when, as appears from Lord Keith’s letter 
of the *23d of July, orders had been sent from 
Paris for his arrest, and when (as has since 
been proved) one or more intimations had 
been given by the officer commanding in Isle 
d’Aix, that, if he did not depart, he would 
be under the necessity of detaining him. Be¬ 
sides, it is now perfectly ascertained, that 
the determination of repairing to England 
was adopted at a consultation held by Buona¬ 
parte on the night of the 13th of July, when 
his letter to the Prince Regent was written; 
and Messrs. Las Cases and Lallemand were 
sent on the morning of the 14th to discover 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 179 

it I would receive him on board the Bel- 
lerophon, and convey him to that country. 

On the morning of the 6th of August, 
when walking the deck with Monsieur 
Las Cases, he for the first time mention¬ 
ed, that he understood me to have as¬ 
sured him that the Emperor would be 
well received in England, and allowed to 
reside there. I replied, “ I cannot conceive 
how you could so far misunderstand me, as 
I constantly, in my communications with 
you, stated that I could make no promises 
whatever: that I thought my orders would 
bear me out in receiving him on board, and 
conveying him to England; but even in 
doing that, I acted very much upon my own 
responsibility. You questioned me fre¬ 
quently, as to my private opinion; and as I 
was quite ignorant upon the subject, I could 
only say I had no reason to believe he 
would be ill received. 5 ’ It did not, however, 
n 2 


180 


NARRATIVE OF 


require my assistance to raise the hopes of 
those about Buonaparte, respecting the man¬ 
ner in which he was to be received in 
England; as one of his followers, on the 
passage home, asked me if I thought the 
Prince Regent would confer the order of the 
Garter upon him. If there was any misun¬ 
derstanding, (which I cannot allow to have 
been the case,) Monsieur Las Cases has him¬ 
self to blame. When he came on board of 
the Bellerophon for the purpose of treating, 
he concealed his knowledge of the English 
language; which, as I had considerable diffi¬ 
culty in expressing myself in French, could 
only be intended for the purpose of throwing 
me off my guard, that he might take ad¬ 
vantage of any expressions that fell from me, 
or the officers I had always present at our 
meetings. Even after he was on board with 
Buonaparte, though he acknowledged he 
could read English, and always translated 
the newspapers for his master, he affected 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


181 


not to be able to speak it. What his actual 
knowledge of the language was, the following 
extract of a letter, from a friend of mine on 
board the Northumberland, dated at sea, 
August the 22d, 1815, will show: 

“ I do not know, whether Las Cases ever 
let you know he could speak English; but 
this I can assure you, that he speaks it very 
near as well as Madame Bertrand, and can 
hold a conversation, or maintain an argu¬ 
ment in it, with as much fluency as she can.” 

This forenoon, I had a long conversation 
with Buonaparte. He complained bitterly of 
the conduct of the British Government; and 
entered, at considerable length, into the state 
of his affairs when he determined upon the 
measure of repairing on board the Belle- 
rophon. “ There still,” said he, “ was a 
large party in the South, that wished me to 
put myself at its head ; the army behind the 


182 


NARRATIVE OF 


Loire was also desirous of my return. At 
ten o’clock of the night before I embarked, 
a deputation from the garrison of Rochelle 
waited upon me, with an offer to conduct 
me to the army; in addition to which, the 
troops that were in Rochefort, Bourdeaux, 
and Isle d’Aix, amounting to twelve thousand 
men, were at my disposal. But I saw there 
was no prospect of ultimate success, though 
I might have occasioned a great deal of 
trouble and bloodshed, which I did not 
choose should take place on my account in¬ 
dividually while the empire was at stake, 
it was another matter.” 

In the afternoon, Mr. O’Meara, the sur¬ 
geon, informed me that General Savary had 
made a proposal to him to accompany 
Buonaparte to St. Helena as his medical 
attendant; Monsieur Maingaut, his surgeon, 
being a young man with whom he was little 
acquainted, and had suffered so much from 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


183 


sea-sickness in the passage from Rochefort, 
that he felt averse to undertaking another 
sea voyage. He consulted me as to the 
propriety of accepting the offer. I told him 
it must depend very much upon his own 
feelings; but if he had no dislike to it, he 
had better accept the proposal, on condition 
that our Government consented, and agreed 
to pay his salary ; but, in that case, an official 
communication must pass, through me, to the 
Admiral on the subject. This was the first 
intimation I received of Buonaparte having 
made any arrangement towards complying 
with the notification he had received from 
our Government. 

About nine A. M. a large ship was seen to 
leeward, which, on closing, proved to be 
the Northumberland. The whole squadron 
then stood in, and anchored to the westward 
of Berryhead. I went on board the Ton- 
nant, and reported to Lord Keith that Buo- 


184 


NARRATIVE OF 


naparte had at last made up his mind to 
move from the Bellerophon without force 
being used; and that Count Bertrand was 
desirous of seeing his Lordship, that he 
might make the necessary arrangements 
about the people who were to accompany 
him. By the Admiral’s directions, I returned 
to my ship and brought Monsieur Bertrand 
to him. Soon after Sir George Cockburn ar¬ 
rived, and they were shut up together for 
nearly two hours. 

When I first went on board the Tonnant, 

I received a memorandum from Lord Keith, 
from which I give an extract; and at the 
same time a verbal intimation, that I should 
receive an order in writing the next day, to 
remove Buonaparte, and such part of his 
suite as he might select, to the Northumber¬ 
land. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


185 


Extract of a Memorandum from Admiral Viscount Keith, 

G. C. B. addressed to Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. 

Bellerophon, dated Tonnant, off the Start, 6th August, 

1815. 

“ All arms of every description are to be 
taken from the Frenchmen of all ranks on 
board the ship you command ; and they are 
to be carefully packed up and kept in your 
charge, while they remain on board the 
Bellerophon ; and afterwards in that of the 
captain of the ship to which they may be 
removed.” 

While we were at dinner. Generals Ber¬ 
trand and Montholon were employed ma¬ 
king out lists of what would be required by 
the French officers and the ladies, to render 
them comfortable during their voyage to St. 
Helena, which were despatched to Plymouth 
by Sir George Cockburn’s secretary. 


In the course of the evening Lord Keith 


186 


NARRATIVE OF 


and Sir George Cockburn came on board 
the Bellerophon; when the latter was intro¬ 
duced to Buonaparte. 

As soon as General Bertrand was at leisure, 
I told him I had orders to remove Napoleon 
to the Northumberland the following day, 
and also to take away the arms from him and 
his attendants, giving him to understand that 
they would be returned on their arrival at 
their destination. He seemed much hurt at 
being deprived of his arms, but said he 
would give directions for their being deli¬ 
vered; and I received them the next morning, 
with the exception of Buonaparte’s sword, 
which, by an order I subsequently received 
from Lord Keith, he was permitted to wear, 
when quitting the ship. 

About half-past nine in the evening, Mons. 
Bertrand told me that Buonaparte was de¬ 
sirous of seeing me. On going into his cabin, 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


187 


he said, “ Bertrand informs me you have 
received orders to remove me to the Nor¬ 
thumberland ; is it so ?” I answered in the 
affirmative. “ Have you any objection,” he 
said, “ to writing a letter to Bertrand, ac¬ 
quainting him of it; that I may have a 
document to prove that I was forced to quit 
the ship, and that my inclinations were not 
consulted.” I replied, “ I can have no objec¬ 
tion to write such a letter, and shall do it 
this evening.” I was then going to retire, 
when he requested me to remain, having 
more to say. “ Your Government,” he con¬ 
tinued,” has treated me with much severity, 
and in a very different way from what 1 
had hoped and expected, from the opinion I 
had formed of the character of your country¬ 
men.* It is true I have always been the ene¬ 
my of England, but it has ever been an open 
and declared one ; and I paid it the highest 
compliment it was possible for man to do 
in throwing myself on the generosity of 


188 


NARRATIVE OF 


your Prince: I have not now to learn, how¬ 
ever, that it is not fair to judge of the cha¬ 
racter of a people by the conduct of their 
Government.” He then went on, (alluding to 
the Government,) “ They say I made no 
conditions. Certainly I made no conditions; 
how could an individual enter into terms 
with a nation ? I wanted nothing of them 
but hospitality, or, as the ancients would 
express it, ‘ air and water.’ My only wish 
was to purchase a small property in England, 
and end my life there in peace and tran¬ 
quillity. As for you, Capitaine,” (the name by 
which he always addressed me) ^ I have no 
cause of complaint; your conduct to me has 
been that of a man of honour; but I cannot 
help feeling the severity of my fate, in having 
the prospect of passing the remainder of my 
life on a desert island. But,’’ added he with a 
strong emphasis, “if your Government give up 
Savary and Lallemand to the King of France, 
they will inflict a stain upon the British name 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 189 

that no time can efface.” I told him, in that 
respect, they were under an erroneous im¬ 
pression ; that I was convinced it was not 
the intention of his Majesty’s Ministers to 
deliver them up. “ Je l’esp&re,” “ I hope so 
was his only reply.—I then took my leave of 
him for the night. 

That I may not break in upon the occur¬ 
rences of the 7th, I shall here insert the let¬ 
ter I wrote at Buonaparte’s request, and a 
copy of the orders under which I acted in 
removing him from the Bellerophon to the 
Northumberland. 


“ H. M. S. Bellerophon, Start Bay, 

“ 7th August, 1815. 

“ Sir, 

“ I beg to acquaint you that I have this 
day received orders from Lord Keith, Com¬ 
mander in Chief of the Channel Fleet, to 
remove General Buonaparte from the ship I 


190 


NARRATIVE OF 


command, to his Majesty’s ship Northum¬ 
berland ; and I have to request you will in¬ 
timate the above to the General, that he may 
prepare for the removal. 

“ I likewise enclose a copy of an order 
respecting the arms of General Buonaparte 
and the whole of his attendants, and request 
you will give directions for their being de¬ 
livered to me, that they may be disposed of 
as the order directs. 

“ I have the honour to be, 

&c. &c. &c. 

Fred. L. Maitland. 

“ Lieut. General Count Bertrand.” 


Copy of the order alluded to. 

“ By the Right Hon. Viscount Keith, G. C. B. 
&c. &c. &c. 

“You are hereby required and directed 
to deliver the persons, named below, into the 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


191 


charge of Rear Admiral Sir George Cock- 
burn. 

“ Given on board the Tonnant, 

At anchor under Berryhead, 

7th August, 1815. 

Keith, Admiral. 

“ By command of the Admiral, 

“James Meek, Secretary.” 

“ To F. L. Maitland, Esq. 

Captain of H. M. S. Bellerophon. v 

General Buonaparte. 

Count Bertrand, his Wife, three children, one fe¬ 
male servant, and her child. 

General Montholon, his Wife, one child, and one fe¬ 
male servant. 

General Gourgaud. 

Le Comte de Las Cases, and his son. 

Marchand Prenier, Valet de Chambre. 

St. Denis, ditto. 

Novarra, ditto. 

Pieron, Chef d'Office. 

Le Page Cuisinier. 

Archambaud, Premier Valet de Pied. 


192 


NARRATIVE OF 


Gentilini, Valet de Pied. 

Bernard, domestique du Comte Bertrand. 

The four domestics underneath, who had 
come to England in the Myrmidon, also ac¬ 
companied him:— 

Cipriani, Maitre d'Hotel. 

Santini, Hnissier. 

Kosseau, Lampiste. 

Archambaud, Valet de Pied. 

Extract of a Letter from Admiral Viscount Keith, 

G. C. B., addressed to Captain Maitland, of H. M. S. 

Bellerophon, dated Tonnant, off Berry-head, 7th 

August, 1815. 

“ When the General quits the ship, it is 
not intended to take his sword from him, 
but to let him wear it, but not the others. 
Pistols, guns, &c. must, as in all instances, be 
removed for the safety of the ship, but the 
arms are carefully to be kept, and restored 
at a proper occasion.” 

On the morning of the 7th of August, 1815, 
Count Las Cases made an application to me 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 193 

for permission to wait on Lord Keith, hav¬ 
ing a communication to make to*him. I, in 
consequence, went to his Lordship, and ob¬ 
tained leave to send him. When the Admiral 
came on board the Bellerophon, in the fore¬ 
noon, to attend Buonaparte in his removal to 
the Northumberland, he informed me that 
Monsieur Las Cases had represented to him, 
that I had promised Buonaparte should be 
well received in England, and allowed to 
remain there; and the same day he wrote a 
letter to me containing the above statement, 
and directing me to report upon it, which I 
afterwards did, as will hereafter appear. 

Count Bertrand was employed, during the 
morning, making out a list of those that 
were to proceed to St. Helena with Buona¬ 
parte, in which General Gourgaud’s name 
was omitted, and Colonel Planat was nomi¬ 
nated his Secretary. This offended Monsieur 
Gourgaud so much, that he made use of some 


o 


194 


NARRATIVE OF 


very strong language to General Bertrand; 
and after a good deal of altercation, it was 
arranged, I believe by Buonaparte himself, 
that Gourgaud should take Planat’s place. 
There was also another cause of disagreement. 
The number of domestics allowed to go to St. 
Helena being only twelve, did not admit of 
all the officers taking their personal attend¬ 
ants ; General Montholon was obliged to 
leave a servant who had been with him many 
years, and Count Bertrand’s was the only 
exception. 

General Bertrand had been so much em¬ 
ployed all the morning making preparations 
for their removal, that he did not come to 
breakfast until every one had finished; his 
wife remained at the table, as I did also, as a 
mark of attention to him. She soon com¬ 
menced an attack on her husband, to induce 
him to quit Buonaparte and remain in Eng¬ 
land. He seemed much distressed, but re¬ 
mained silent. At last, she turned to me, and 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 195 

begged I would give an opinion, and use 
my influence in favour of her proposal. I 
said, “ Madame Bertrand, I have from the 
beginning endeavoured to avoid meddling in 
the very unpleasant discussions that have 
been going on for some days; but, as you 
demand my opinion, and force me to give it, 
I must acquaint you that I think, if your 
husband quits his master at such a time as 
the present, he will forfeit the very high 
character he now bears in this country.” I 
then rose from the table and went upon deck. 

A short time after, Madame Bertrand came 
on deck, and, addressing me with much in¬ 
dignation in her countenance, said, “ So, 
Captain Maitland, I hear the Emperor is not 
to have the whole of the after-cabin on board 
the Northumberland.” I told her, I under¬ 
stood that Sir George Cockburn had re¬ 
ceived orders to that effect. “ They had 
better treat him like a dog at once,” said 
o 2 


NARRATIVE OF 


196 

she, “ and put him down in the hold.” I 
had for several days been kept in a state 
of irritation that cannot be described, and 
such as few people have had an opportunity 
of experiencing. Madame Bertrand had, 
it will be readily understood, some share in 
causing this; and on her making the above 
remark, I am sorry to say, the little self-pos¬ 
session that still remained gave way, and I 
answered in these words, “ Madam, you talk 
like a very foolish w r oman ; and if you cannot 
speak more to the purpose, or with more 
respect of the Government I have the honour 
to serve, I request you will not address 
yourself to me.” Just before she went out of 
the ship, however, she came up to me in a 
conciliatory and friendly manner, that did 
her the highest honour, and said, “ Captain 
Maitland, you called me a very foolish 
woman this morning, but I should be sorry 
to part with you on bad terms; have you any 
objection to shake hands with me ? as God 
knows if we shall ever meet again.” " Very 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


197 


far from it,’’ I answered; “ I should be ex¬ 
tremely sorry you left the ship without 
receiving my good wishes for your happi¬ 
ness and prosperity; and if, in the warmth 
of my temper, and under the harassing cir¬ 
cumstances of my situation, I have said any 
thing unpleasant, I most sincerely beg your 
pardon, and hope you will forgive and for¬ 
get it.” 

Soon after breakfast, Marchand came and 
said the Emperor wished to see me : I went 
into the cabin. “ I have requested to see 
you, Captain,” said he, “ to return you my 
thanks for your kindness and attention to me 
whilst 1 have been on board the Bellerophon, 
and likewise to beg you will convey them to 
the officers and ship’s company you com¬ 
mand. My reception in England has been 
very different from what I expected; but it 
gives me much satisfaction to assure you, 
that I feel your conduct to me throughout 
has been that of a gentleman and a man of 


198 


NARRATIVE OF 


honour. He then said, he was desirous of 
having Mr. O’Meara, the surgeon of the Bel- 
lerophon, to accompany him; and asked my 
opinion of him In his medical capacity, as 
well as of his principles. I replied, that I 
had the highest opinion of him, both for his 
skill and attention ; that he had given me so 
much satisfaction while under my command, 
that I had procured his removal from two 
different ships in which he had served with 
me previous to my appointment to the Bel- 
lerophon, that he might accompany me ; and 
that I was convinced he was a man of princi¬ 
ple and integrity. After conversing some 
time longer with him, during which he spoke 
in the warmest terms of affection of General 
Bertrand, and the obligations he felt to him 
for his remaining with him during his adver¬ 
sity, when he knew strong efforts had been 
used to induce him to abandon him, I took 
my leave; and this was the last time I was 
ever alone with him. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


199 


Soon after, Sir George Cockburn came on 
board, attended by Mr. Byng as his secre¬ 
tary, for the purpose of examining Buona¬ 
parte’s baggage: he had directions to apply 
to some person of his suite to attend at the 
search. The proposal was made to Count 
Bertrand; but he was so indignant at the 
measure, that he positively refused either 
to be present himself or to direct any other 
person to superintend. General Savary, 
however, consented, and was present, as 
well as Marchand. The covers of the trunks 
were merely opened, and Mr. Byng passed 
his hand down the side, but the things were 
not unpacked. Once or twice, when the 
door of the after-cabin was opened, Buona¬ 
parte expressed his obligation to Mr. Byng 
for the delicate manner in which he con¬ 
ducted the search, by bowing to him. When 
they came to the boxes containing the mo¬ 
ney, of which there were two, Marchand 
was permitted to take out such sum as was 
considered necessary for paying the wages 


200 


NARRATIVE OF 


of the servants that were to be left behind, 
and for other contingent expenses. One box, 
containing four thousand gold Napoleons, 
was retained and put under my charge, 
where it remained until my arrival in Lon¬ 
don, when I delivered it to Sir Hudson 
Lowe to be restored to its owner, as will be 
seen by the following order, receipts, &c. 

“ By the Right Hon. Viscount Keith, G. C. B. 
&c. &c. &c. 

“ You are hereby required and directed 
to receive into your custody such a sum of 
money belonging to General Buonaparte, as 
will be delivered into your charge by Rear- 
Admiral Sir George Cockburn, granting 
proper receipts for the same. 

“ Given on board the Tonnant, 

At anchor under Berryhead, 

7th August, 1815, 

“ Keith, Admiral.” 

“ To F. L. Maitland, Esq. 

‘ Captain of H. M. S. Bellerophon.” 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


201 


“ J’ai laisse le sept d’aout, 4 bord du Belle- 
rophon, a Monsieur le Capitaine Maitland, 
une somme de quatre vingt mille francs, en 
quatre mille Napoleons d’or. 

“ Marchand, 

Premier Valet de Chambre.” 

On the 7th of August, I have left on board 
the Bellerophon, in charge of Captain Mait¬ 
land, the sum of eighty thousand francs, in 
four thousand gold Napoleons. 

Marchand, 

1st Valet de Chambre. 

“I acknowledge to have received a box 
with four paper packages, said to contain 
four thousand gold Napoleons, the property 
of Napoleon Buonaparte. 

“ August 7th, 1815, 

“ Fred. L. Maitland.” 

“ Approved, George Cockburn. 


202 


NARRATIVE OF 


As I shall not have to revert to the subject 
of the money, I shall here subjoin the receipt 
I obtained on delivering it at the Admiralty 
Office, though it is of a date some time 
posterior. 

“ Admiralty, September 14, 1815. 

“ Received from Captain Maitland a box, 
containing four packages, marked each 
20,000 francs, and said to contain four thou¬ 
sand Napoleons d’or.” 

“ H. Lowe, Major General.” 

About eleven, A. M., Lord Keith came on 
board in the Tonnant’s barge, to accompany 
Buonaparte from the Bellerophon to the 
Northumberland. Count Bertrand imme¬ 
diately went into the cabin to inform him of 
his Lordship’s arrival: it was, however, full 
two hours before it was reported that he was 
ready to attend him. About one o’clock, the 
barge of the Admiral was prepared; a Cap- 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


203 


tain’s guard turned out, and by Lord Keith’s 
direction, as Napoleon crossed the quarter¬ 
deck to leave the ship, the guard presented 
arms, and three ruffles of the drum were 
beat, being the salute given to a General 
Officer. 

He walked out of the cabin with a steady, 
firm step, came up to me, and, taking off his 
hat, said, “ Captain Maitland, I take this last 
opportunity of once more returning you my 
thanks for the manner in which you have 
treated me while on board the Bellerophon, 
and also to request you will convey them to 
the officers and ship’s company you com¬ 
mand then turning to the Officers, who 
were standing by me, he added, “ Gentle¬ 
men, I have requested your Captain to ex¬ 
press my gratitude to you for your attention 
to me, and to those who have followed my 
fortunes.” He then went forward to the 
gangway; and before he went down the 


204 


NARRATIVE OF 


ship’s side, bowed two or three times to the 
ship’s company, who were collected in the 
waist and on the forecastle; he was followed 
by the ladies and the French Officers, and 
lastly by Lord Keith. After the boat had 
shoved off, and got the distance of about 
thirty yards from the ship, he stood up, pull¬ 
ed his hat off, and bowed first to the Offi¬ 
cers, and then to the men ; and immediately 
sat down, and entered into conversation with 
Lord Keith, with as much apparent compo¬ 
sure as if he had been only going from one 
ship to the other to pay a visit. 

About a quarter of an hour before Buona¬ 
parte quitted the Bellerophon, Montholon 
came to me on the quarter-deck, and said, 
“ I am directed by the Emperor to return 
you his thanks for the manner in which 
you have conducted yourself throughout the 
whole of this affair ; and he desires me to say, 
that the greatest cause of disappointment he 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


205 


feels in not being admitted to an interview 
with the Prince Regent is, that he had in¬ 
tended to ask as a favour from his Royal 
Highness, that you should be promoted to 
the rank of Rear Admiral.” I answered, 

“ that although the request could not have 
been complied with under any circumstances, 
as it was contrary to the regulations of our 
naval service, yet I do not the less feel the 
kindness of the intention.” “ He meant also, 
he said, “ to have presented you with a box 
containing his portrait, but he understands 
you are determined not to accept it.” I re¬ 
plied, “ In the situation' I am placed, it is 
quite impossible I can receive any present 
from' him.” “ He is perfectly aware,” said 
he, “ of the delicacy of your situation, and 
approves of your conduct.” I then said, 
“ j f ee i much hurt that Count Las Cases 
should have stated to Lord Keith, that I had 
promised Buonaparte should be well received 
in England, or indeed made promises of any 


206 


NARRATIVE OF 


sort. I have endeavoured to conduct myself 
with integrity and honour throughout the 
whole of this transaction, and therefore can¬ 
not allow such an assertion to go uncontra- 
dicted.’’ “ Oh!” said he, “ Las Cases nego¬ 
tiated this business; it has turned out very 
differently from what he and all of us ex¬ 
pected. He attributes the Emperor’s situation 
to himself, and is therefore desirous of giv¬ 
ing it the best countenance he can; but I 
assure you, the Emperor is convinced your 
conduct has been most honourable:” then 
taking my hand, he pressed it, and added, 
“ and that is my opinion also;’ 

In the course of the afternoon, I attended 
General Savary and Lallemand on board the 
Northumberland, where they went for the 
purpose of taking a last farewell of their 
master. I had very little conversation with 
him myself, but they remained with him a 
considerable time. When I was about to re- 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


207 


turn to my ship, I went into the cabin to tell 
them they must accompany me. They ap¬ 
proached him in the after-cabin, where he 
was standing, when he embraced each of 
them most affectionately, after the French 
manner, putting his arms round them, and 
touching their cheeks with his. He was firm 
and collected; but, in turning from him, the 
tears were streaming from their eyes. On 
getting on board, all the squadron got under 
weigh, the Tonnant and Bellerophon to re¬ 
turn to Plymouth, the Northumberland, with 
two troop ships in company, to proceed to 
St. Helena. The following day she was joined 
by a frigate and several sloops of war from 
Plymouth, when she made sail to the west¬ 
ward. 

Having now brought my narrative down 
to the period of Buonaparte’s quitting the 
ship, it only remains for me to give some ac¬ 
count of his person and character, as far as it 


208 


NARRATIVE OF 


fell under my view. In doing so, I shall en¬ 
deavour, as far as possible, in the same spirit 
with which the foregoing narrative is writ¬ 
ten, to avoid being biassed, either by favour¬ 
able or unfavourable feelings towards him. 
What he may have been when at the head of 
the French Empire, with the destiny of the 
greater part of Europe under his control, I 
have no peculiar means of knowing; all I can 
pretend to do is, to describe him as he was 
on board the Bellerophon; adding a few 
anecdotes, which have been omitted in the 
course of the narrative, as serving to throw 
some further light upon his character. 

Napoleon Buonaparte, when he came on 
board the Bellerophon, on the 15th of July, 
1815, wanted exactly one month of com¬ 
pleting his forty-sixth year, being born the 
15th of August, 1769. He was then a remark¬ 
ably strong, well-built man, about five feet 
seven inches high, his limbs particularly 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


209 


well-formed, with a fine ancle and very 
small foot, of which he seemed rather vain, 
as he always wore, while on board the ship, 
silk stockings and shoes. His hands were 
also very small, and had the plumpness of a 
woman’s rather than the robustness of a 
man’s. His eyes light grey, teeth good ; and 
when he smiled, the expression of his coun¬ 
tenance was highly pleasing; when under 
the influence of disappointment, however, 
it assumed a dark gloomy cast. His hair was 
of a very dark brown, nearly approaching to 
black, and, though a little thin on the top and 
front, had not a grey hair amongst it. His 
complexion was a very uncommon one, being 
of a light sallow colour, differing from almost 
any other I ever met with. From his having 
become corpulent, he had lost much of his 
personal activity, and, if we are to give 
credit to those who attended him, a very 
considerable portion of his mental energy 
was also gone. It is certain his habits were 


p 


210 


NARRATIVE OF 


very lethargic while he was on board the 
Bellerophon; for though he went to bed be¬ 
tween eight and nine o’clock in the evening, 
and did not rise till about the same hour in 
the morning, he frequently fell asleep on the 
sofa in the cabin in the course of the day. 
His general appearance was that of a man 
rather older than he then was. His manners 
were extremely pleasing and affable : he join¬ 
ed in every conversation, related numerous 
anecdotes, and endeavoured, in every way, 
to promote good humour: he even admitted 
his attendants to great familiarity; and I saw 
one or two instances of their contradicting 
him in the most direct terms, though they 
generally treated him with much respect. 
He possessed, to a wonderful degree, a fa¬ 
cility in making a favourable impression 
upon those with whom he entered into con¬ 
versation : this appeared to me to be accom¬ 
plished by turning the subject to matters he 
supposed the person he was addressing was 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


211 


well acquainted with, and on which he could 
show himself to advantage. This had the 
effect of putting him in good humour with 
himself; after which it was not a very difficult 
matter to transfer a part of that feeling to the 
person who had occasioned it. Lord Keith 
appears to have formed a very high opinion 
of the fascination of his conversation, and 
expressed it very emphatically to me, after 
he had seen him: speaking of his wish 
for an interview with the Prince Regent, 
“ D-n the fellow,” he said, “ if he had ob¬ 

tained an interview with his Royal High¬ 
ness, in half an hour they would have been 
the best friends in England.” He appeared 
to have great command of temper; for, though 
no man could have had greater trials than 
fell to his lot during the time he remained 
on board the Bellerophon, he never, in my 
presence, or as far as I know, allowed a 
fretful or captious expression to escape him: 
even the day he received the notification 

p 2 


212 


N A liUATI VE OF 


from Sir Henry Bunbury, that it was deter¬ 
mined to send him to St. Helena, he chatted 
and conversed with the same cheerfulness as 
usual. It has been asserted that he was 
acting a part all the time he was on board 
the ship; but still, even allowing that to be 
the case, nothing but great command of 
temper could have enabled him to have sus¬ 
tained such a part for so many days, in his 
situation. 

I shall here relate a circumstance that 
occurred during the passage to England, 
which will show in a strong point of view 
the freedom that subsisted between him and 
those of his attendants in whom he had 
confidence. A conversation took place re¬ 
specting the relative state of cultivation 
in France and in England. My opinion 
being asked, I said, that though the cli¬ 
mate of France was much superior to that 
of England, I believed that agriculture had 


C A P T A1 N M AIT LA N D. 


213 


arrived at a greater state of perfection with 
us than in France. Most of the Frenchmen 
treated the idea with ridicule; upon which I 
said, let us refer to Monsieur Las Cases, who 
has lived several years in England. “ You 
are right,” said he; “ there can be no doubt, 
that agriculture has arrived to much greater 
perfection in England than in France; but 
what I admire most in England, are the 
country-seats of your noblemen and gentle¬ 
men ; there you surpass France very much.” 
General Bertrand then took up the conver¬ 
sation, and said, that he was assured, that 
thirty thousand pounds sterling was annually 
expended on the park and grounds of Blen¬ 
heim. Buonaparte immediately reduced that 
sum into livres ; and observed, “ The thing 
is impossible: the English people are not 
fools; they know the value of money, and no 
individual either could or would expend 
such a sum for such a purpose.” He then 
spoke of the expense of keeping up Mai- 


214 


NARRATIVE OE 


maison, one of the country palaces in 
France; stating the sum it cost annually, 
which did not exceed five thousand pounds. 
Bertrand still persisted in his statement, and 
made a reference to me. I, however, could 
give no information further than saying, that 
from what I had heard of the Duke of Marl¬ 
borough’s finances, he could not possibly lay 
out any such sum on Blenheim. Monsieur 
Bertrand would not give up the point, but 
repeated his assertion. On which Buona¬ 
parte said, with quickness, “ Bah! c’est im¬ 
possible.” “ Oh!” said Bertrand, much 
offended, “ if you are to reply in that man¬ 
ner, there is an end of all argumentand 
for some time would not converse with him. 
Buonaparte, so far from taking umbrage, 
did all he could to soothe him and restore 
him to good-humour, which was not very 
difficult to effect. 

One morning he began to talk of his wife 


CAP T AIN M AITLAND. 


2*5 


and child, and desired Marchand to bring 
two or three miniature pictures to show me: 
he spoke of them with much feeling and 
affection. “ I feel,” said he, “ the conduct 
of the allied sovereigns to be more cruel and 
unjustifiable towards me in that respect than 
in any other. Why should they deprive me 
of the comforts of domestic society, and take 
from me what must be the dearest objects of 
affection to every man—my child, and the 
mother of that child ?” On his expressing 
himself as above, I looked him steadily in 
the face, to observe whether he showed any 
emotion: the tears were standing in his 
eyes, and the whole of his countenance ap¬ 
peared evidently under the influence of a 
strong feeling of grief. 

There were two pictures of young Napo¬ 
leon : one in the dress of a Polish lancer, and 
the other with long curly flowing ringlets: 
they both represented a fair, strong, chubby 


216 


NARRATIVE OF 


boy, with features very much resembling 
those of his father. That of his mother, a 
very fair woman, with good features, but by 
no means handsome. 

From the observations I was enabled to 
make, I very much doubt Monsieur Savary’s 
statement, that the passion of ambition was 
so completely overcome in his bosom, “ that 
had it been proposed to him again to ascend 
the throne of France, he would have de¬ 
clined it; and I do think, that if he had suc¬ 
ceeded in eluding the British cruisers and 
arrived in America, he would always have 
looked forward to returning to France. In 
all his conversations, he spoke of ambition 
as a quality absolutely necessary to form the 
character of a soldier. On one occasion, 
Savary spoke of Kleber, (who was left by 
Napoleon in command of the army when he 
quitted Egypt,) in terms of high encomium; 
this brought on a discussion upon the re- 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


217 


spective merits of that officer and Dessaix, 
whose aid-de-camp Savary had been during 
the negotiation of the convention of El Arish. 
Buonaparte, speaking of Kleber, bestowed 
upon him great praise as an officer ; but he 
added, “ He was deficient in one of the most 
necessary qualifications of a soldier,—am¬ 
bition. He was indolent, and required con¬ 
stant spurring. Dessaix, on the contrary, 
had all his abilities, which were kept in 
constant activity by a mind whose ambition 
there was no satisfying; and, had they both 
lived to the present period, he would have 
been much the greater man of the two.’* 

It does not appear from the statement of 
Buonaparte’s attendants, that he had made 
any very considerable provision for the fu¬ 
ture, in the event of a reverse of fortune. 
They often regretted his poverty; and Ma¬ 
dame Bertrand assured me that he was not 
possessed of more than a million of francs— 


218 


NARRATIVE OF 


forty-two thousand pounds of our money ;* 
which, if correct, is certainly not a very large 
sum for a man who had had so many millions 
at his disposal. “ The Emperor has always 
declared,” she said, “ that he would rise or 
fall with the country, and never would enrich 
himself out of the public property.” He also 
upon one occasion, when there was some in¬ 
tention of leaving Madame Bertrand with 
her children in England, after stating Ber¬ 
trand’s poverty as an objection to that ar¬ 
rangement, said to me, “ My finances are not 
such as to enable me to give him much 
assistance.” 


* Since this narrative was written in the year 1815, 
it has been proved by Buonaparte’s will, that either his 
attendants were misinformed, or that they, as well as him¬ 
self, misrepresented the state of his finances, as he left 
in the hands of Lafitte, the banker, in Paris, a sum of 
money amounting to nearly four hundred thousand pounds 
sterling, besides a very considerable sum, said to be vested 
in the American funds. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


219 


Buonaparte’s carriage, which was taken at 
the battle of Waterloo by the Prussian ca¬ 
valry, contained many articles of great value. 
In it was a necessaire, in which all the in¬ 
struments, bason, &c. were composed of 
gold ; a sword set with diamonds, and a dia¬ 
mond necklace, estimated at a very large sum 
of money, which one of his sisters (I think, 
the Princess of Borghese) put round his neck 
the night he took leave of her at Paris, on his 
setting out to join the army previous to the 
battle of Waterloo, and which he had taken 
off and deposited in a secret place in the car¬ 
riage; Marchand, his Valet de Chambre, 
being so nearly taken by the Prussian hus¬ 
sars, that he quitted the carriage without 
having time to secure it. But I have since 
learned from Las Cases’s Memoirs, that the 
necklace alluded to was saved, and that Las 
Cases had it concealed about his person all 
tl\e time he was on board the Bellerophon. 


220 


NARRATIVE OF 


It has been stated in many of the public 
prints, that had not the Marquis of Anglesea 
received a wound when he was leading on a 
charge, Buonaparte must have fallen into 
his hands. In consequence of observing 
this assertion, I asked Generals Bertrand 
and Gourgaud whether they knew if any 
such occurrence had taken place: both of 
whom replied, “ Certainly not; the Emperor 
was frequently in the midst of the British 
troops (pele-m£le avec les troupes Angloises); 
but at no time during the battle was he in 
danger of being captured by a charge of 
cavalry.” 

The midshipmen of the Bellerophon were 
in the habit of occasionally performing plays, 
to amuse themselves and the officers during 
the tedious operations of a blockade. Buo¬ 
naparte being told of it by Savary, requested 
that they would oblige him by acting one 
for his amusement. During the performance, 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


221 


Madame Bertrand sat next to him, and in¬ 
terpreted. He appeared much amused, and 
laughed very heartily at our ladies, who 
were personated by great strapping fellows 
dressed in women’s clothes, and not in 
the most tidy fashion. He had the patience 
to remain to the end of the third act, though, 
when attending the Opera at Paris, he had 
always retired at the end of the first. 

I heard several of the French officers dis¬ 
cussing the merits of the British troops. One 
of them said, “The cavalry is superb.” I 
observed, “ In England we have a higher 
opinion of our infantry.” “ You are right, 
said he; “ there is none such in the world : 
there is no making an impression on them : 
you may as well attempt to charge through 
a wall: and their fire is tremendous.” Ano¬ 
ther of them observed: “ A great fault in 
your cavalry is their not having their horses 
sufficiently under command: there must be 


222 


NARRATIVE OF 


something wrong in the bit, as on one or 
two occasions in a charge, they could not 
stop their horses : our troops opened to the 
right and left, let them pass through, and 
then closed their ranks again, when they 
were either killed or taken prisoners.” 

I never heard Buonaparte speak of the 
battle of Waterloo, or give an opinion of the 
Duke of Wellington; but I asked General 
Bertrand what Napoleon thought of him. 
“Why,” replied he, “I will give you his 
opinion nearly in the words he delivered it 
to me. ‘ The Duke of Wellington, in the 
management of an army, is fully equal to 
myself, with the advantage of possessing 
more prudence.’ ” 

During the time that Buonaparte was on 
board the Bellerophon, we always lived ex¬ 
pressly for his accommodation—-entirely in 
the French manner; that is to say, a hot 
meal was served at ten o’clock in the morn- 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


223 


ing, and another at six in the evening; and 
so nearly did they resemble each other in all 
respects, that a stranger might have found 
difficulty, in coming into the cabin, to dis¬ 
tinguish breakfast from dinner. His maitre 
d’hdtel took the joints off the table, cut them 
up in portions, and then handed them round* 
Buonaparte ate a great deal, and generally of 
strong solid food : in drinking he was ex¬ 
tremely abstemious, confining himself almost 
entirely to claret, and seldom taking more 
than half-a-pint at a meal. Immediately 
after dinner, strong coffee was handed round, 
and then some cordial; after which he rose 
from table, the whole meal seldom lasting 
more than twenty or twenty-five minutes : 
and 1 was told, that during the time he was 
at the head of the French Government, he 
never allowed more than fifteen minutes for 
that purpose. 

After he had quitted the ship, being de- 


224 


NARRATIVE OF 


sirous to know the feeling of the ship’s com¬ 
pany towards him, I asked my servant what 
the people said of him. “ Why, Sir,” he an¬ 
swered, “ I heard several of them conversing 
together about him this morning ; when one of 
them observed, ‘ Well, they may abuse that 
man as much as they please; but if the people 
of England knew him as well as we do, they 
would not hurt a hair of his head in which 
the others agreed.” This was the more ex¬ 
traordinary, as he never went through the 
ship’s company but once, immediately after 
his coming on board, when I attended him, 
and he did not speak to any of the men; 
merely returning their salute by pulling off 
his hat; and in consequence of his presence, 
they suffered many privations, such as not 
being allowed to see their wives and friends, 
or to go on shore, having to keep watch in 
port, &c.; and when he left the ship, the only 
money he distributed was twenty Napoleons 
to my steward, fifteen to one of the under¬ 
servants, and ten to the cook. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


225 


It may, perhaps, be interesting to give a 
slight sketch of the principal persons who 
accompanied Buonaparte to the Bellerophon; 
premising, that I do not pretend to be mi¬ 
nutely correct in the view I took of them: 
the trying circumstances in which these un¬ 
fortunate men were placed, being such as re¬ 
quired more than common temper; and I 
think it very doubtful, whether, in the same 
situation, Englishmen would have maintain¬ 
ed equal forbearance. 

Count Bertrand was a man of about forty- 
four years of age, five feet ten inches in height, 
of a slight make and prepossessing appear¬ 
ance : his manners extremely placid and 
gentle, though evidently of a warm temper; 
and showed himself rather hasty in his con¬ 
duct to Sir George Cockburn, about search¬ 
ing the baggage ; as Sir George was not act¬ 
ing upon his own authority, but by the di¬ 
rections of his superiors, and was inclined to 
Q 


226 


NARRATIVE OF 


conduct himself with as much consideration 
as his orders would admit. He was an affec¬ 
tionate attentive husband, and much attach¬ 
ed to his children. 

The Countess Bertrand was then of a tall, 
slight figure. Her maiden name was Dillon ; 
her father was an Irishman in the French ser¬ 
vice, who lost his life during the revolution, 
and was related to Lord Dillon. Though, 
perhaps, a little warm, she has undoubtedly 
many excellent qualities : she showed herself 
to be a kind mother and affectionate wife; 
and if she easily took offence, she as easily 
forgot it; and any little dispute that occurred 
between her and me, was amply atoned for by 
the frank and affectionate manner in which she 
took leave when we were about to part, per¬ 
haps for ever. They had, at the time I speak 
of, three fine children, — two boys and a 
girl; the eldest boy about five years of age, 
who seemed to have a natural turn for the 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


227 


profession of his father : his constant amuse¬ 
ment, in which the young lady and little 
Montholon joined, was forming lines and 
squares, and other military evolutions, on the 
quarter deck. 

General Savary, Due de Rovigo, was a tall 
handsome man, then about forty-six years of 
age, of a cheerful disposition ; and notwith¬ 
standing the alarm he was in lest he should 
be given up to the French Government, 
he never forgot himself so far as to make 
use of a rude expression in my presence. He 
was Minister of Police after Fouch6. As a 
great deal had been said about Captain 
Wright’s death, I spoke to him one day 
upon the subject, and told him it was gene¬ 
rally believed in England that he had been 
murdered : he said, “ I took much pains in 
investigating that matter, and in ascertaining 
the cause of his death; and I have not a 
doubt that he cut his own throat in a lit of 
Q 2 


228 


NARRATIVE OF 


delirium.” Neither Savary nor Lallemand 
were allowed to accompany Buonaparte to 
St. Helena ; but on the Bellerophon’s return 
to Plymouth, after transferring Napoleon 
to the Northumberland, both of them, to¬ 
gether with Planat and the other officers 
with the exception of three, were, by an 
order from the Admiralty, sent on board the 
Eurotas frigate, which conveyed them to 
Malta, from whence, after remaining some 
time as prisoners in Fort St. Angelo, they 
were allowed to proceed to Smyrna. 

General Lallemand was about forty-two 
years of age, of a thick strong make ; his 
manners not pleasing, and his appearance by 
no means prepossessing. During the whole 
time he was in the Bellerophon, he was 
morose and abstracted, and seemed much 
alarmed lest he should be given up to the 
French Government; and there can be little 
doubt, had he fallen into its power, he would 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


229 


have shared the fate of Ney, as he had, with 
the troops under his command, joined Na¬ 
poleon on his return from Elba, He had for¬ 
merly been, for several years, one of Buona¬ 
parte’s aide-de-camps, and during the time 
he was in the Bellerophon always did that 
duty in rotation with Montholon and Gour- 
gaud; one of them sleeping in his clothes on 
a mattress every night outside of the door 
of the cabin he slept in. The other two aide- 
de-camps, Generals Montholon and Gour- 
gaud, were young men about thirty-two 
years of age, the former an officer in the 
cavalry, and the other in the artillery : they 
were both of good families; but their attach¬ 
ment to Buonaparte induced them to give 
up their country and property to follow him. 

Madame Montholon was a quiet unassum¬ 
ing woman, gave no trouble, and seemed 
perfectly satisfied, provided she were allow¬ 
ed to accompany her husband. She had 


230 


NARRATIVE OF 


with her one fine little boy, about four years 
old, and I believe left another child at nurse 
in France. 

Count Las Cases, though he bore the title 
of Counsellor of State, held no official situ¬ 
ation with Buonaparte ; nor did I perfectly 
understand how he came to accompany him 
on his departure from France, as he was not 
with him in Elba: but the intimacy appear¬ 
ed to have been formed since his return from 
that island. Napoleon was fond of his con¬ 
versation. He was of small stature, being 
little more than five feet high, and slightly 
made. He always spoke of his master in 
terms of enthusiasm, and resisted every ap¬ 
plication from his wife and family to remain 
behind, being determined to follow when¬ 
ever Buonaparte might be sent. He took 
with him his eldest son, a quick intelligent 
boy of thirteen. 


CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 


231 


Monsieur Maingaut, the surgeon, with all 
the domestics beyond the twelve who went 
to St. Helena, were conveyed in the Belle- 
rophon to Portsmouth, and from thence sent 
to Cherbourg, and landed there. Monsieur 
Saint Catharine, a lad about sixteen, nephew 
to the Empress Josephine, and a native of 
Martinique, was provided with a passage to 
that island in one of our sloops of war. 

Captain Prontowski, a Pole, was allowed 
to proceed to St. Helena, some time after 
the Northumberland sailed. Why this in¬ 
dulgence was granted to him, I never clearly 
understood ; but it was said to be in conse¬ 
quence of the representations he made to 
the British Government, of the very strong 
attachment he entertained to his fallen mas¬ 
ter,—a feeling, as far as I could judge, which 
prevailed with equal force in the breasts of 
all those who accompanied him from France, 
without excepting Madame Bertrand, who, 


232 


NARRATIVE, &C. 


when not influenced by the horror she en¬ 
tertained of being banished to St. Helena, 
always spoke of him not only with affection, 
but in the language of respect and enthu¬ 


siasm. 


APPENDIX. 


So many erroneous statements have gone 
abroad, as to the terms of Buonaparte’s 
reception on board the Bellerophon, that I 
conceive it right to give the following cor¬ 
respondence, although at the expense of 
some repetition; in order to its being dis¬ 
tinctly seen, that the good faith of the Bri¬ 
tish nation was not compromised on that 
occasion, but that His Majesty’s Government 
were at perfect liberty, as far as those terms 
were concerned, to act as they thought 
best. 



234 


APPENDIX. 


“ Tonnant, at anchor under Berry-head, 
7th August, 1815. 

“ Sir, 

“ Count Las Cases having this morning 
stated to me that he understood from you, 
when he was on board the Bellerophon in 
Basque Roads, on a mission from General 
Buonaparte, that you were authorized to re¬ 
ceive the General and his suite on board the 
ship you command, for conveyance to Eng¬ 
land ; and that you assured him, at the same 
time, that both the General and his suite 
would be well received there; you are to 
report for my information, such observations 
as you may consider it necessary to make 
upon these assertions. 

“ I am. Sir, 

Your most obedient. 

Humble servant, 
Keith, Admiral.” 

“ Captain Maitland, 

Bellerophon. ,, 


APPENDIX. 


235 


“ H. M. S. Bellerophon, 
Plymouth Sound, 8th August, 1815. 

“ My Lord, 

“ I have to acknowledge the receipt of 
your Lordship’s letter of yesterday’s date, 
informing me that Count Las Cases had 
stated to you, that he had understood from 
me when he was on board the Bellerophon 
in Basque Roads, on a mission from General 
Buonaparte, that I was authorized to receive 
the General and his suite on board the ship 
I command, for a conveyance to England, 
and that I assured him at the same time, 
that both the General and his suite would 
be well received there; and directing me to 
report for your Lordship’s information such 
observations as I may consider it necessary 
to make upon these assertions. I shall, in 
consequence, state, to the best of my recol¬ 
lection, the whole of the transaction that 
took place between Count Las Cases and 


236 


APPENDIX. 


me, on the 14th of July, respecting the em¬ 
barkation of Napoleon Buonaparte, for the 
veracity of which I beg to refer your Lord- 
ship to Captain Sartorius as to what was 
said in the morning, and to that officer and 
Captain Gambier (the Myrmidon having 
joined me in the afternoon) as to what pass¬ 
ed in the evening. 

“ Your Lordship being informed already of 
the flag of truce that came out to me on the 
10th of July, as well as of every thing that 
occurred on that occasion, I shall confine 
myself to the transactions of the 14th of the 
same month. 

“ Early in the morning of that day, the 
officer of the watch informed me, a schooner, 
bearing a flag of truce, was approaching: 
on her joining the ship, about seven A.M. the 
Count Las Cases and General Lallemand 
came on board, when, on being shown into 


APPENDIX. 


237 


the cabin, Las Cases asked me if any an¬ 
swer had been returned to the letter sent 
by me to Sir Henry Hotham respecting Na¬ 
poleon Buonaparte being allowed to pass 
for America, either in the frigates or in a 
neutral vessel. I informed him no answer 
had been returned, though I hourly expect¬ 
ed, in consequence of those despatches. Sir 
Henry Hotham would arrive; and, as I had 
told Monsieur Las Cases, when last on board, 
that I should send my boat in when the 
answer came, it was quite unnecessary to 
have sent out a flag of truce on that account: 
—there, for the time, the conversation ter¬ 
minated. On their coming on board, I had 
made the signal for the Captain of the Sla- 
ney, being desirous of having a witness to 
all that might pass. 

“ After breakfast (during which Captain 
Sartorius came on board) we retired to the 
after-cabin, when Monsieur Las Cases began 


238 


APPENDIX. 


on the same subject, and said, ‘ The Em¬ 
peror was so anxious to stop the further ef¬ 
fusion of blood, that he would go to Ame¬ 
rica in any way the English Government 
would sanction, either in a neutral, a dis¬ 
armed frigate, or an English ship of war.’ To 
which I replied, ‘ I have no authority to 
permit any of those measures; but if he 
chooses to come on board the ship I com¬ 
mand, I think, under the orders I am acting 
with, I may venture to receive him and carry 
him to England; but, if I do so, I can in no 
way be answerable for the reception he may 
meet with (this I repeated several times ); 
when Las Cases said, ‘ I have little doubt, un¬ 
der those circumstances, that you will see the 
Emperor on board the Bellerophon.’ After 
some more general conversation, and the 
above being frequently repeated, Monsieur 
Las Cases and General Lallemand took their 
leave : and I assure your Lordship that I 
never, in any way, entered into conditions 


APPENDIX. 


239 


with respect to the reception General Buona¬ 
parte was to meet with ; nor was it, at that 
time, finally arranged that he was to come on 
board the Bellerophon. In the course of con¬ 
versation, Las Cases asked me whether I 
thought Buonaparte would be well received 
in England; to which I gave the only answer 
I could do in my situation—‘ That I did not 
at all know what was the intention of the 
British Government; but I had no reason to 
suppose he would not be well received.’ It is 
here worthy of remark, that when Las Cases 
came on board, he assured me that Buona¬ 
parte was then at Rochefort, and that it would 
be necessary for him to go there to report the 
conversation that had passed between us 
(this I can prove by the testimony of Captain 
Sartorius, and the first Lieutenant of this ship, 
to whom I spoke of it at the time), which 
statement was not fact; Buonaparte never 
having quitted Isle d’Aix, or the frigates, 
after the 3rd. 


240 


APPENDIX. 


“ I was, therefore, much surprised at see¬ 
ing Monsieur Las Cases on board again before 
seven o’clock the same evening; and one of 
the first questions I put to him was, whether 
he had been at Rochefort. He answered, 
that on returning to Isle d’Aix, he found that 
Buonaparte had arrived there. 

“ Monsieur Las Cases then presented to me 
the letter Count Bertrand wrote concerning 
Buonaparte’s intention to come on board the 
ship (a copy of which has been transmitted 
to your Lordship by Sir Henry Hotham); 
and it was not till then agreed upon that I. 
should receive him; when either Monsieur 
Las Cases, or General Gourgaud (I am not 
positive which, as I was employed writing 
my own despatches,) wrote to Bertrand to 
inform him of it. While paper was preparing 
to write the letter, I said again to Monsieur 
Las Cases, ‘You will recollect I have no au¬ 
thority for making conditions of any sort/ 


APPENDIX. 


241 


Nor has Monsieur Las Cases ever started 
such an idea till the day before yesterday. 
That it was not the feeling of Buonaparte, 
or the rest of his people, I will give strong 
proof, drawn from the conversations they 
have held with me. 

“ As I never heard the subject mentioned 
till two days ago, 1 shall not detail every 
conversation that has passed, but confine 
myself to that period. 

“The night that the squadron anchored 
at the back of Berry-head, Buonaparte sent 
for me about 10 P. M. and said he was in¬ 
formed by Bertrand, that 1 had received or¬ 
ders to remove him to the Northumberland, 
and wished to know if that was the case, 
on being told that it was, he requested I 
would write a letter to Bertrand, stating I 
had such orders, that it might not appear 


a 


242 


APPENDIX. 


that he went of his own accord, but that 
he had been forced to do so. I told him, I 
could have no objection, and wrote a letter 
to that effect (a copy of which is here an¬ 
nexed), which your Lordship afterwards sanc¬ 
tioned, and desired me, if he required it, to 
give him a copy of the order. 

“ After having arranged that matter, I was 
going to withdraw, when he requested me to 
remain, as he had something more to say : he 
then began complaining of his treatment in 
being forced to go to St. Helena: among other 
things, he observed, ‘ They say I made no 
conditions: certainly, I made no conditions: 
how could a private man (\un particulier ) 
make conditions with a nation? I wanted 
nothing from them but hospitality, or (as the 
ancients would express it) air and water. I 
threw myself on the generosity of the Eng¬ 
lish nation; I claimed a place sur leurs foyers, 
and my only wish was to purchase a small 


APPENDIX. 


243 


estate and end my life in tranquillity.’ After 
more of the same sort of conversation I left 
him for the night. 

“ On the morning he removed from the 
Bellerophon to the Northumberland, he sent 
for me again, and said, ‘ I have sent for you 
to express my gratitude for your conduct to 
me, while 1 have been on board the ship you 
command. My reception in England has 
been very different from what I expected; 
but you throughout have behaved like a man 
of honour; and I request you will accept 
my thanks, as well as convey them to the 
officers, and ship’s company of the Bellero¬ 
phon.’ 

“ Soon afterwards Montholon came to me 
from Buonaparte; but, to understand what 
passed between him and me, I must revert 
to a conversation that I had with Madame 
Bertrand on the passage from Rochefort. 

R 2 


244 


APPENDIX. 


44 It is not necessary to state how the con¬ 
versation commenced, as it dees not apply 
to the present transaction; but she informed 
me, that it was Buonaparte’s intention to 
present me with a box containing his pic¬ 
ture set with diamonds. I answered, ‘ I 
hope not, for I cannot receive it.’ ‘ Then 
you will offend him very much,’ she said. 
4 If that is the case,’ I replied, 4 I request 
you will take measures to prevent its being 
offered, as it is absolutely impossible I can 
accept of it; and I wish to spare him the 
mortification, and myself the pain, of a re¬ 
fusal.’ There the matter dropt, and I heard 
no more of it, till about half an hour before 
Buonaparte quitted the Bellerophon, when 
Montholon came to me, and said he was 
desired by Buonaparte to express the high 
sense he entertained of my conduct through¬ 
out the whole of the transaction: that it had 
been his intention to present me with a box 


APPENDIX. 


245 


containing his portrait, but that he under¬ 
stood I was determined not to accept it. I 
said, ‘ Placed as I was, I felt it impossible 
to receive a present from him, though I was 
highly flattered at the testimony he had 
borne to the uprightness of my conduct 
throughout.’ Montholon then added, ‘ One 
of the greatest causes of chagrin he feels 
in not being admitted to an interview with 
the Prince Regent, is, that he had determin¬ 
ed to ask as a favour, your being promoted 
to the rank of Rear-Admiral.’ To which I 
replied, e That would have been quite im¬ 
possible, but I do not the less feel the kind¬ 
ness of the intention.’ I then said, ‘ I am 
hurt that Las Cases should say I held forth 
any assurances as to the reception Buo¬ 
naparte was to meet with in England.’ 
* Oh!’ said lie, ‘ Las Cases is disappointed 
in his expectations; and as he negotiated the 
affair, he attributes the Emperor’s situation 


246 


APPENDIX. 


to himself: but I can assure you, that he 
(Buonaparte) feels convinced you have acted 
like a man of honour throughout.’ 

“ As your Lordship overheard part of a 
conversation which took place between Las 
Cases and me on the quarter-deck of the 
Bellerophon, I shall not detail it; but on 
that occasion, I positively denied having 
promised any thing as to the reception of 
Buonaparte and his suite; and I believe 
your Lordship was of opinion, he could not 
make out the statement to you. 

“ It is extremely unpleasant for me to be 
under the necessity of entering into a detail 
of this sort; but the unhandsome representa¬ 
tion Monsieur Las Cases has made to your 
Lordship of my conduct, has obliged me to 
produce proofs of the light in which the 
transaction was viewed by Buonaparte as 
well as his attendants. 


APPENDIX. 


247 


“ I again repeat, that Captains Gambier 
and Sartorius can verify the principal part 
of what I have stated, as far as concerns 
the charge made against me by Count Las 
Cases. 

“ I have the honour to be. 

Your Lordship’s 
Most obedient humble servant, 

Frederick L. Maitland.” 

“ To the Right Hon. 

Viscount Keith, G.C.B. 

&c. &c. &c.” 


“ Slaney, in Plymouth Sound, 
15th August, 1815. 

“ My Lord, 

“ I have read Captain Maitland’s letter 
to your Lordship, of the 8th instant, con¬ 
taining his observations upon the assertions 
made on the preceding day by Count Las 
Cases; and I most fully attest the cor¬ 
rectness of the statement he has made, so 


248 


APPENDIX, 


far as relates to the conversations that took 
place in my presence. 

“ 1 have the honour to be. 

Your Lordship’s 
Most obedient humble servant, 

G. R. Sartorius. 
Capt. of H. M. S. Slaney.” 

“ To the Right Hon. 

Viscount Keith, G. C. B. 

&c. &c. &c.” 


A letter to the same effect as the fore¬ 
going was written to Lord Keith, by Captain 
Gambier, of the Myrmidon, and forwarded 
by his Lordship to the Admiralty, with my 
report; of which, by some accident, the 
Admiral’s secretary did not furnish me with 
a copy. 


THE END. 














































